Oscar Aguilar, PhD Biography Oscar Aguilar, PhD, leads a research program at UCSF focused on how natural killer (NK) cells recognize virally infected and cancerous cells. During his PhD, he identified two virally encoded immunoevasins that modulate the NK response to cytomegalovirus, including the long-sought ligand for the NK1.1 receptor. He completed postdoctoral training in the lab of NK cell expert Prof. Lewis Lanier at UCSF, where he dissected species-specific differences in CD16-mediated NK cell activation. His current work includes development of a humanized mouse model to study NK-mediated responses and adaptive-like memory NK cells. His lab explores receptor-ligand interactions and the innate immune programs that drive memory NK cell formation in cancer and viral infection models.