Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering
The Hickey Lab sits at the interface of engineering and immunology, using and developing systems immunology tools to investigate tissue structure in situ. We also use multiplexed imaging and computational techniques to characterize spatial cellular responses related to the effectiveness of anti-cancer cell or biomaterial therapies. John has received a number of awards for his work, including the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, ARCS Scholar, Siebel Scholar, NCI Postdoctoral Fellowship, and American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Appointments and Affiliations
- Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering
- Assistant Professor in Biostatistics & Bioinformatics
- Member of the Duke Cancer Institute
Contact Information
- Email Address: john.hickey@duke.edu
- Websites:
Education
- Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, 2019
Research Interests
Using and developing systems biology tools and technologies to describe and control spatial relationships between cells in tissues, particularly in cell therapies.
Awards, Honors, and Distinctions
- American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship. American Cancer Society. 2020
Courses Taught
- EGR 393: Research Projects in Engineering
- BME 792: Continuation of Graduate Independent Study
- BME 791: Graduate Independent Study
- BME 590: Special Topics in Biomedical Engineering
- BME 493: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
- BME 394: Projects in Biomedical Engineering (GE)
- BME 260L: Modeling Cellular and Molecular Systems
In the News
- Genomic Medicine, Beyond CRISPR (Nov 8, 2024 | Pratt School of Engineering)
- John Hickey: When It Comes to Studying Cells, Location is Everything (Aug 21, 2…
- It’s a beautiful day in the intestinal neighborhood (Jul 19, 2023)
Representative Publications
- Caraccio, Chiara, Josie van de Klashorst, Shelby Cherkas, Sara Ancel, Tim Noah Kempchen, Gustavo Vazquez, Yury Goltsev, Yu Xin Wang, Garry P. Nolan, and John W. Hickey. “Comparative Evaluation of Antibody-Oligonucleotide Conjugation Strategies for Multiplexed Imaging Applications.” Laboratory Investigation; a Journal of Technical Methods and Pathology, November 2025, 104262. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labinv.2025.104262.
- Tan, Yuqi, Tim N. Kempchen, Martin Becker, Maximilian Haist, Dorien Feyaerts, Jiaqi Liu, Marieta Toma, et al. “SPACEc: a streamlined, interactive Python workflow for multiplexed image processing and analysis.” Nature Communications 16, no. 1 (November 2025): 10652. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65658-3.
- Strasser, Michael K., David L. Gibbs, Philippe Gascard, Joanna Bons, John W. Hickey, Deng Pan, Joseph A. Caruso, et al. “Concerted changes in Epithelium and Stroma: a multi-scale, multi-omics analysis of progression from Barrett's Esophagus to adenocarcinoma.” Developmental Cell 60, no. 20 (October 2025): 2807-2824.e7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2025.06.034.
- Jain, Yashvardhan, Jodie Jepson, Roy Chen, Elizabeth Maier, Bruce W. Herr, Aleix Puig-Barbe, Ellen M. Quardokus, et al. “Exploring endothelial cell environments across organs in spatially resolved omics data.” BioRxiv, September 25, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.23.678129.
- Border, Samuel P., Ricardo Melo Ferreira, Nicholas Lucarelli, Suhas Katari Chaluva Kumar, Anindya S. Paul, David Manthey, Laura Barisoni, et al. “FUSION: a web-based application for in-depth exploration of multi-omics data with brightfield histology.” Nat Commun 16, no. 1 (September 25, 2025): 8388. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-63050-9.