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 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)
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
- Lin, Meng-Lay, John W. Hickey, Adam Passman, Emanuela Carlotti, Shruthi Devkumar, Yannick H. Derwa, Joanne ChinAleong, et al. “Alterations of the composition and spatial organization of the microenvironment following non-dysplastic Barrett's esophagus through progression to cancer.” Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, June 12, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.06.09.657642.
- Haist, Maximilian, Magdalena Matusiak, Yuqi Tan, Stefanie Zimmer, Henner Stege, Tim Noah Kempchen, Silke Mitschke, et al. “Spatially organized inflammatory myeloid-CD8 + T cell aggregates linked to Merkel-cell Polyomavirus driven Reorganization of the Tumor Microenvironment.” BioRxiv, June 6, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.06.06.657162.
- Börner, Katy, Philip D. Blood, Jonathan C. Silverstein, Matthew Ruffalo, Rahul Satija, Sarah A. Teichmann, Gloria J. Pryhuber, et al. “Human BioMolecular Atlas Program (HuBMAP): 3D Human Reference Atlas construction and usage.” Nat Methods 22, no. 4 (April 2025): 845–60. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-024-02563-5.
- Drainas, Alexandros P., David R. McIlwain, Alec Dallas, Theresa Chu, Antonio Delgado-González, Maya Baron, Maria Angulo-Ibáñez, et al. “High-throughput multiplexed serology via the mass-spectrometric analysis of isotopically barcoded beads.” Nature Biomedical Engineering, February 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-025-01349-0.
- Zhu, Yining, Zhi-Cheng Yao, Shuyi Li, Jingyao Ma, Christine Wei, Di Yu, Jessica L. Stelzel, et al. “mRNA lipid nanoparticle-incorporated nanofiber-hydrogel composite generates a local immunostimulatory niche for cancer immunotherapy.” BioRxiv, January 29, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.01.27.633179.