Gianfranco (Franco) Yee is a cancer engineer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he plans to leverage the gut microbiome and immune system to develop innovative therapeutic treatments.
Growing up with allergies and asthma sparked the beginning of Yee’s journey in science. He is fascinated by the microbiome’s ability to modulate the immune system and is inspired by novel therapies such as microbiota transplants and cancer vaccines developed from bioengineered bacteria. Today, his interests encompass the broad range of diseases connected to the gut microbiome: cancer, allergies, autoimmunity, inflammation, metabolic disorders and more.
Yee earned his bachelor’s degree in biological engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the Manalis Lab, he studied chemical gradients in the gut microenvironment and helped develop a novel gut-on-a-chip platform for culturing organoids under these gradients. His senior thesis extended this work to the microbiome, investigating host-microbe interactions linked to intestinal inflammation and metabolic disorders.
Yee also earned a concentration in education and is committed to increasing access to STEM resources in underserved communities. He co-founded Momentum AI, an educational outreach program that teaches computer science to high school students across Greater Boston. The inaugural program served nearly 100 students and included remote outreach efforts in Ukraine and China. Yee has also worked with MIT Amphibious Achievement and the MIT Office of Engineering Outreach Programs.
Yee currently attends Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School, where he is enrolled in the newly formed cancer engineering program. He is a doctoral student in Dr. Chrysothemis Brown’s laboratory. Additionally, he serves on the student council as an assistant curriculum advisor for the cancer engineering program.
In his free time, Yee enjoys playing electric guitar, snowboarding and rock climbing.
