Faculty

Roddy O'Connor, B.Sc., M.S., Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Department: Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Graduate Group Affiliations

Contact information

3400 Civic Center Blvd
8-105 SPE
Perelman School of Medicine
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Email:
oconnorr@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Publications

Search PubMed for articles

Education
B.Sc. (Exercise Physiology)
University of Limerick, 1997.
M.S. (Muscle Metabolism)
Georgia State University, 1999.
Ph.D. (Molecular Pharmacology)
Emory University School of Medicine, 2007.

Links
Search PubMed for articles
Informative webinar describing how fuel metabolism supports CAR-T cell differentiation
This webinar focuses on understanding what is in your cell culture media and why owning your formulations is imperative.
Understanding how Artificial Intelligence can expedite media formulation
Informative webinar providing insight into how unique CAR co-stimulatory domains influence the growth, differentiation, and metabolic function of T cells
This webinar will focus on understanding the time and cost of custom media and its importance for cell therapy
My lab's website in the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies, Perelman School of Medicine,
The first web-link includes two segments of biomedical correspondence for FoxNEWS. I was also the subject of a Penn undergraduate student's documentary.

Permanent link

> Perelman School of Medicine > Faculty > Details

Description of Research Expertise

CAR-T cell metabolism; T cell activation, proliferation and differentiation; Lentiviral, retroviral and mRNA-based gene transfer; Post-transcriptional gene suppression by shRNA and microRNA's; Bio-engineered cell culture platforms; Tissue stem cell differentiation;

Description of Clinical Expertise

Clinical Research Coordinator

Description of Other Expertise

Biomedical Expert (Local News Affiliate)

Selected Publications

Ko Eun, Mohamed Fathima A, Rhee Stephanie Y, Zhao Yujie, Amaro Marquez Rocio, Ly Joanna, Aguilar Ethan G, Melin Haley, Sage Peter T, Schumacher Tanner, Ronayne Conor, Panoskaltsis-Mortari Angela, Riddle Megan, Osborn Mark, Thangavelu Govindarajan, Crawford Peter A, O’Connor Roddy S, Zaiken Michael C, Hippen Keli L, Kean Leslie S, Rathmell Jeffrey C, Liu Juan, Locasale Jason W, Mereddy Venkatram, Blazar Bruce R: Mitochondrial pyruvate carrier inhibition restrains germinal center T follicular helper cells attenuating chronic graft-versus-host disease. Am J Transplant 6: S1600-6135, October 2026.

Brown EG, Compeer EB, Gan Z, Kelly AR, Shestov AA, Córdoba-Espejo L, Evans MT, Liu AY, Naughton NH, Parnaik TS, Larson JH, Blazar BR, Bartman CR, Rabinowitz JD, Dustin ML, Powell DJ Jr, O'Connor RS: Lipids in ovarian cancer ascites impair T cell activation by disrupting TCR dynamics. Nature Metabolism 8((7)), July 2026.

Frazee CS, Chen S, Berry CT, Lee CS, Banciella RA, Ngo L, Shon D, Herman PJ, Fischman JS, Leff CL, Chen A, Kuo Y, Shestov AA, Kelly AR, Valentic B, Milone MC, O'Connor RS, Ellebrecht CT: Fate induction through asymmetric T cell division is modulated by chimeric antigen receptor costimulatory domains. Nat Immunol 27(7), July 2026.

Durgin JS, Seo SH, Kazmi S, Valentić B, Leff C, Markovska M, Jin X, Shen F, Berjis A, Mukherjee N, Sannecy A, Plesa G, Gabunia K, Scholler J, Gill SI, O'Connor RS, June CH, Ghassemi S.: Single-day nonactivated IL-18-armed CAR T cells establish a durable, stemlike state with enhanced persistence. Blood 16, April 2026.

Emma E Goodman, Abdulla Berjis, Neil C Sheppard, Nicola J Mason, Roddy S O'Connor, Aimee S Payne : FcεRγI promotes canine CD8 chimeric antigen receptor T cell cytotoxicity through a Syk-NF-κB axis. Molecular Therapy 34(4), April 2026.

Liu S, Guruprasad P, Ramasubramanian R, Madhu B, Paruzzo L, Han K, Kelly A, Shestov A, Xu HN, Carturan A, Zhou C, Amses KR, Afriat A, Litichevskiy L, Lin J, Dubowitz E, Tangal N, Zhang J, McSween A, Tan M, Stella F, Lee A, Nason S, Hua X, Schneider M, Sleeman M, Zhang Y, Gabrielli G, Yang Z, Pajarillo R, Patel R, Ghilardi G, Patel V, Joshi A, Jiang S, Jiang Y, Porazzi P, Tchou JC, Keith B, Li M, Chong E, Schuster SJ, Milone M, Rabinowitz J, O'Connor RS, Thaiss CA, Levy M, Ruella M: β-hydroxybutyrate enhances the metabolic fitness of CAR T cells in cancer. Cell 189(6), March 2026.

Xu HN, Kollmar J, Podsednik A, Wannousse M, Shestov A, O’Connor RS, Baur JA, Tchou J, Zhou R, Li LZ.: : Live-Cell Optical Redox Imaging Reveals Metabolic Heterogeneity and Context-Dependent Responses to Metabolic Perturbation in TNBC Cells. Metabolites 16(9): 613, , 2026.

Anderson, L., Mason, N.J., and O'Connor, R.S.: Engineering T cell metabolism to enhance therapeutic efficacy. Adv Pharmacology 106, 2026.

McDonald-Hyman C, Aguilar EG, Compeer EB, Zaiken MC, Rhee SY, Mohamed FA, Larson JH, Loschi ML, Lees C, Thangavelu G, Sleeth ML, Smith KD, Whangbo JS, Ritz J, Sparwasser TD, O'Connor RS, Crawford PA, Rathmell JC, Kean LS, Zeiser R, Hippen KL, Dustin ML, Blazar BR.: Acetyl-CoA carboxylase-1 inhibition increases regulatory T-Cell metabolism and graft-vs-host disease treatment efficacy via mitochondrial fusion. J. Clin Invest no volume(no issue): e182480, September 2025.

Lee CS, Chen S, Berry CT, Kelly AR, Herman PJ, Oh S, O'Connor RS, Payne AS, Ellebrecht CT.: Fate induction in CD8 CAR T cells through asymmetric cell division. Nature 633(8030): 670-677, September 2024.