Darren Yu

Scientist II

Darren received his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from Indiana University in 2021. His Ph.D. thesis work developed fluorescent-based sensors to monitor and understand the phagocytosis in innate immune cells. He later joined Lili Yang’s lab at UCLA as a postdoc to develop hematopoietic stem cells-derived invariant natural killer T (HSC-iNKT) cells and 3D organoids cultures to elucidate antitumor efficacy of CAR – and CAR-iNKT. After his postdoc, he spent a brief period at Fate therapeutics, where he continued his effort to improve iPSC-derived T cell products for immunotherapy. Darren joined Retro in February 2023 with a passion for developing new cell-based adoptive therapy for treating cancer and longevity. In his free time he likes to play basketball and tennis, and cook.