Zachary Steinhart, PhD Parker Scholar Biography Zachary Steinhart, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow and PICI scholar who is training under Alexander Marson, MD,PhD, at the Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology. He received his PhD at the University of Toronto, Canada, training in the lab of Stephane Angers, PhD. In his graduate studies, Steinhart studied the genomics of pancreatic cancer. He developed CRISPR-based tools for screening thousands of genes in parallel in cancer cells, leading to the discovery of novel potential therapeutic targets for pancreatic cancer. As a Parker Scholar in the Marson Lab, Steinhart will use the CRISPR toolkit to study the genomics of T cells. Mapping and understanding the genetic circuitries underlying T cell function in cancer will be crucial in developing the next generation of T cell therapies. Steinhart will use CRISPR to develop an unbiased map of which coding and non-coding genes are causal in T cell function and dysfunction in tumor environments. Such studies will further our understanding of mechanisms leading to T cell dysfunction in tumors and provide a detailed blueprint for how to genetically modify T cells for increased antitumor function. Education & Training 2019: University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada PhD Pharmaceutical Sciences 2012: Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada B.S. Life Sciences Awards & Honors 2018: ASBMB graduate/post-doc travel award for ASBMB annual meeting 2017: Terry Fox Symposium Ontario node top poster honor 2016: Graduate Scholarship, Centre for Pharmaceutical Oncology 2016: Graduate Research in Progress (GRIP) symposium at department of pharmaceutical sciences, elected by peers for student oral presentation 2015: GRIP symposium, department of pharmaceutical sciences – Top poster honor