Faculty
Dr. Larry Dooling is an Assistant Professor in the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in the Cullen College of Engineering at the University of Houston. He received a B.S.E. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from California Institute of Technology working in the group of Prof. David Tirrell. He then returned to the University of Pennsylvania for postdoctoral studies with Prof. Dennis Discher in the Molecular and Cellular Biophysics Lab, where he was supported by an NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship. His research has been recognized with national awards at the National Cancer Institute JI Conference and the Biomedical Engineering Society CMBE Conference.
The Dooling Lab focuses broadly on Molecular and Cellular Immunoengineering with specific interests in macrophages, antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis, and immune checkpoints.
We aim to combine techniques from cell & tissue engineering, biomolecular engineering, and biomaterials science to make fundamental discoveries in immunobiology and to harness the immune system – especially macrophage phagocytosis – for bioengineering applications that will improve human health.
BMES Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Postdoc Travel Award (2023)
NIH/NCI Junior Investigators’ Conference Best Overall Talk (2022)
NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship (2018)
Zeisberg Award AIChE Delaware Valley Section (2009)
AIChE Delaware Valley Section Award (2008)
Melvin C. Molstad Prize in Chemical Engineering (2008)
Selected Publications
- B.H. Hayes*, H. Zhu*, J.C. Andrechak, L.J. Dooling, D.E. Discher, “Titrating CD47 by mismatch CRISPRi reveals incomplete repression can eliminate IgG-opsonized tumors but limits induction of anti-tumor IgG.” PNAS Nexus 2, pgad243. [https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad243], 2023
- L.J. Dooling*, J.C. Andrechak*, B.H. Hayes, S. Kadu, W. Zhang, R. Pan, M. Vashisth, J. Irianto, C.M. Alvey, L. Ma, D.E. Discher, “Cooperative phagocytosis of solid tumours by macrophages triggers durable anti-tumour immunity.” Nature Biomedical Engineering 7, 1081-1096 [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-023-01031-3], 2023
- O.H. Usman, S. Kumar, R.R. Walker III, G. Xie, A.A.R. Jalil, L.J. Dooling, Y.J. Wang, J. Irianto, “Differential roles of extracellular matrix proteins on primary and metastatic pancreatic cancer cell.” Molecular Biology of the Cell 3, ar130. [https://doi.org/10.1091/mbc.E23-02-0075], 2023
- J.C. Andrechak, L.J. Dooling, M.P. Tobin, W. Zhang, B.H. Hayes, J.Y. Lee, X. Jin, J. Irianto, D.E. Discher, “CD47-SIRPα immune checkpoint blockade of metastatic lung melanoma requires a tumor-targeting antibody to suppress tumor growth.” Cancers. 14, 1930 [https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14081930], 2022
- L.J. Dooling, K. Saini, A.A. Anlaş, D.E. Discher, “Tissue mechanics coevolves with fibrillar matrisomes in healthy and fibrotic tissues.” Matrix Biology 111, 153-188 [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matbio.2022.06.006], 2022
- J.C. Andrechak*, L.J. Dooling*, D.E. Discher, “The macrophage checkpoint CD47:SIRPα for recognition of ‘self’ cells by macrophages: from clinical trials of blocking antibodies to mechanobiological fundamentals." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 374, 20180217 [https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0217], 2019
- L.J. Dooling, D.A. Tirrell, “Engineering the dynamics of protein hydrogel networks through sequence variation.” ACS Central Science 2, 812-819 [https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.6b00205], 2016
- L.J. Dooling, M.E. Buck, W.-B. Zhang, D.A. Tirrell, “Programming molecular association and viscoelastic behavior in protein networks” Advanced Materials 28, 4651-4657 [https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201506216], 2016