Mohsen Basiri Ph.D.
Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology
Assistant professor
Mohsen Basiri is an Assistant Professor of Genetics at Royan Institute. His fields of study are genome editing, gene therapy, and cancer immunotherapy. He received his Ph.D. in Biology-Molecular Genetics from Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran. He also completed two postdocs at Royan Institute (Tehran, Iran) and the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, USA). He has worked extensively on the application of genetic manipulation and genome editing for the production of transgenic stem cell and animal models during his PhD and postdoctoral studies in Tarbiat Modares University and Royan Institute. During his second postdoctoral fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine, he focused his research on gene therapy and immunotherapy of cancer with genetically engineered T cells. Dr. Basiri has been a faculty member of Royan Research Institute since 2017 and is the Principal Investigator of the Immune Cell Gene Therapy research team at Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology, as well as the supervisor of Gene Therapy Medicinal Product (GTMP) development at the Royan ATMP Technology Development Center.
Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) is an engineered molecule that can direct T cells to tumor-associated antigens. T cells can be genetically modified to express CAR protein on their surface. One of the lab’s research focuses is on developing new CAR T cells which can target potent tumor antigens. We are especially interested to develop novel CAR T cells for hard-to-treat solid tumors such as brain tumors. Being part of Royan Institute, a well-known center for reproductive biomedicine, our lab is also working on developing CAR T cell therapies for urologic and gynecological cancers.
Genome Editing
Genome editing methods such as CRISPR technology have provided a valuable means to correct and improve the functionality of immune cells. Dr. Basiri’s lab uses CRISPR genome editing and CRISPR interference methods to improve antitumor function, persistence, and allogeneic compatibility of T cells.
Ali Sayadmanesh
Ph.D. Student
Project title: Evaluation of the effect of IL-10 on CAR-T cells with different co-stimulatory domains
Farzad Alipour
Ph.D. Student
Project title: Genetic modification of patient’s skin cell in dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (EB) (in collaboration with Hair and Skin Team at Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology)
Hamidreza Ebrahimiyan
Ph.D. Student
Project title: Inhibition of T cell receptor surface expression for generation of allogeneic CAR T cells
Alireza Gharatapeh
Ph.D. Student
Project title: Poly(β-aminoester) nanocarriers synthesis for gene delivery to T cells (in collaboration with Tehran University of Medical Science)
Mohammad Azadbakht
Ph.D. Alumni
Zohreh Hakakzadeh
M.Sc. Alumni and Research Assistant
Vahid Yekefallah
M.Sc. Alumni and Research Assistant
Selected Publication:
Yekehfallah V, Pahlavanneshan S, Sayadmanesh A, Momtahan Z, Ma B, Basiri M. Generation and Functional Characterization of PLAP CAR-T Cells against Cervical Cancer Cells. Biomolecules. 2022;12(9):1296. DOI: 10.3390/biom12091296
Azadbakht M, Sayadmanesh A, Nazer N, Ahmadi A, Hemmati S, Mohammadzade H, Ebrahimi M, Baharvand H, Khalaj B, Aghamaali MR, Basiri M. CRISPRi-mediated knock-down of PRDM1/BLIMP1 programs central memory differentiation in ex vivo-expanded human T cells. Bioimpacts. 2022; 12(4), 337–347 DOI: 10.34172/bi.2021.23522
Pourgholaminejad A, Pahlavanneshan S, Basiri M. COVID‐19 Immunopathology with emphasis on Th17 response and Cell‐based Immunomodulation Therapy: Potential Targets and Challenges. Scand J Immunol. 2021; e13131. DOI: 10.1111/sji.13131.
Hakakzadeh Z, Yekehfallah V, Ebrahimiyan H, Sayadmanesh A, Basiri M. Application of Genome-Editing Technologies for Off-the-Shelf T Cell-based Cancer Immunotherapy. Precis Med Clin Omics. 2021; 1(1):e116796. DOI: 10.5812/pmco.116796
Pahlavanneshan S, Sayadmanesh A, Ebrahimiyan H, Basiri M. Toll-Like Receptor-Based Strategies for Cancer Immunotherapy. Journal of Immunology Research. 2021; 2021: 9912188. DOI: 10.1155/2021/9912188
Basiri M, Pahlavanneshan S. Evaluation of Placental Alkaline Phosphatase Expression as a Potential Target of Solid Tumors Immunotherapy by Using Gene and Protein Expression Repositories. Cell Journal. 2021; 23 (6): 717-721. DOI: 10.22074/cellj.2021.7299
Haddadi MH, Negahdari B, Hajizadeh‐Saffar E, Khosravi‐Maharlooei M, Basiri M, Dabiri H, Baharvand H. Directed differentiation of regulatory T cells from naive T cells and prevention of their inflammation‐mediated instability using small molecules. Clinical & Experimental Immunology. 2020;201(2):205-21.
Haddadi MH, Hajizadeh-Saffar E, Khosravi-Maharlooei M, Basiri M, Negahdari B, Baharvand H. Autoimmunity as a target for chimeric immune receptor therapy: A new vision to therapeutic potential. Blood Reviews. 2019:100645
Nami F, Basiri M, Satarian L, Curtiss C, Baharvand H, Verfaillie C. Strategies for In Vivo Genome Editing in Nondividing Cells. Trends in Biotechnology. 2018;36(8):770-86.
Basiri M, Behmanesh M, Tahamtani Y, Khalooghi K, Moradmand A, Baharvand H. The Convenience of Single Homology Arm Donor DNA and CRISPR/Cas9-Nickase for Targeted Insertion of Long DNA Fragment. Cell Journal. 2017;18(4):532.