An annual honor celebrating the unheralded heroes of science and medicine
By Seth Kroll
(BOSTON) — The Wyss Institute is proud to announce that Charles Park, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the Wyss’ Immuno-Materials Platform with Wyss Core Faculty member Samir Mitagotri, Ph.D., has been named a 2025 STAT Wunderkind by STAT News.
The STAT Wunderkinds are annual awards that honor early-career scientists whose creativity and perseverance are helping to reshape biomedical research and health care.
Park’s journey into immune engineering began with his training in chemical engineering, but his passion led him to interdisciplinary science. “Even as I was doing chemical engineering, I was more interested in biology,” Park told STAT News. “Tissues work in harmony. What I realized is an immune system is like that. It’s not a physical entity, but they have immune cells that are communicating with one another, forming a robust system in the body,” Park continued. “What I thought was maybe I could engineer the immune system as well, just like I was engineering tissues.”
Tissues work in harmony. What I realized is an immune system is like that. It’s not a physical entity, but they have immune cells that are communicating with one another, forming a robust system in the body.
With his immunoengineering background developed during his doctorate, and partially inspired by his mother’s breast cancer diagnosis, Park’s postdoctoral work with Samir Mitragotri focused on reprogramming macrophages to take on anti-cancer phenotypes and sustaining their activity even in pro-tumor environments.
As he approaches the next stage in his career, Park hopes to establish his own laboratory to continue developing biomaterials-based immune therapies that can more reliably harness innate cells against cancer.
“Charles is an example of the kind of bold thinker we want in the Wyss and SEAS communities. He is someone who is not only asking deep mechanistic questions but also thinking about patient impact. We congratulate Charles on this well-deserved recognition and look forward to seeing how his work continues to evolve,” said Mitragotri, who is also the Hiller Professor of Bioengineering and Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Charles is an example of the kind of bold thinker we want in the Wyss and SEAS communities.
Read more about Charles and the other 2025 Wunderkinds on the STAT News site: STAT Wunderkinds: Charles Park.