Jonathan Esensten, MD, PhD
Associate Adjunct Professor
Office of the CEO
Chancellor/EVC/FAS

Dr. Jonathan Esensten leads an experimental cellular therapy process development and manufacturing group. His group focusses on improving techniques for manufacturing T cell based therapies for patients with autoimmune disease, solid organ transplant, and cancer. He was a Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Wendell Lim. He is co-director of the clinical Regulatory T Cell Manufacturing Group.…

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He is also Medical Director of the UCSF HICTF and GMP Facility. He completed residency in clinical pathology and fellowship in transfusion medicine and blood banking at UCSF.

Awards

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• Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Fellow, University of California, San Francisco, 2016-2019
• Krevans Award in Laboratory Medicine, San Francisco General Hospital, 2013
• Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society, University of California, San Francisco, 2010

Education & Training

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• Residency, Clinical Pathology Laboratory Medicine University of California, San Francisco 2016
• Fellowship, Transfusion Medicine and Blood Banking Laboratory Medicine University of California, San Francisco 2015
• M.D. Medicine University of California, San Francisco 2012
• Ph.D. Graduate Division (Biomedical Sciences) University of California, San Francisco 2010

Interests

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• synthetic biology
• chimeric antigen receptor T cells
• T cell therapeutics
• immunology
• cellular therapy

Publications (35)

Top publication keywords:
Tissue and Organ ProcurementImmunotherapy, AdoptiveBiological ProductsRoboticsAutoimmune DiseasesT-Lymphocytes, RegulatoryCell- and Tissue-Based TherapyCTLA-4 AntigenCD28 AntigensT-Box Domain ProteinsTh1 CellsConsumer Product SafetyT-LymphocytesSynthetic BiologyBlood Component Transfusion

• Automated manufacturing of cell therapies.
  Journal of controlled release : official journal of the Controlled Release Society 2025 Melocchi A, Schmittlein B, Sadhu S, Nayak S, Lares A, Uboldi M, Zema L, di Robilant BN, Feldman SA, Esensten JH
• A roadmap for affordable genetic medicines.
  Nature 2024 Kliegman M, Zaghlula M, Abrahamson S, Esensten JH, Wilson RC, Urnov FD, Doudna JA
• Development of a robotic cluster for automated and scalable cell therapy manufacturing.
  Cytotherapy 2024 Melocchi A, Schmittlein B, Jones AL, Ainane Y, Rizvi A, Chan D, Dickey E, Pool K, Harsono K, Szymkiewicz D, Scarfogliero U, Bhatia V, Sivanantham A, Kreciglowa N, Hunter A, Gomez M, Tanner A, Uboldi M…
• Selective decrease of donor-reactive Tregs after liver transplantation limits Treg therapy for promoting allograft tolerance in humans.
  Science translational medicine 2022 Tang Q, Leung J, Peng Y, Sanchez-Fueyo A, Lozano JJ, Lam A, Lee K, Greenland JR, Hellerstein M, Fitch M, Li KW, Esensten JH, Putnam AL, Lares A, Nguyen V, Liu W, Bridges ND, Odim J, Demetris AJ, …
• High-yield genome engineering in primary cells using a hybrid ssDNA repair template and small-molecule cocktails.
  Nature biotechnology 2022 Shy BR, Vykunta VS, Ha A, Talbot A, Roth TL, Nguyen DN, Pfeifer WG, Chen YY, Blaeschke F, Shifrut E, Vedova S, Mamedov MR, Chung JJ, Li H, Yu R, Wu D, Wolf J, Martin TG, Castro CE, Ye L, Esensten JH, …

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• Polyclonal Regulatory T Cell Manufacturing Under cGMP: A Decade of Experience.
  Frontiers in immunology 2021 Balcerek J, Shy BR, Putnam AL, Masiello LM, Lares A, Dekovic F, Acevedo L, Lee MR, Nguyen V, Liu W, Paruthiyil S, Xu J, Leinbach AS, Bluestone JA, Tang Q, Esensten JH
• The effect of low-dose IL-2 and Treg adoptive cell therapy in patients with type 1 diabetes.
  JCI insight 2021 Dong S, Hiam-Galvez KJ, Mowery CT, Herold KC, Gitelman SE, Esensten JH, Liu W, Lares AP, Leinbach AS, Lee M, Nguyen V, Tamaki SJ, Tamaki W, Tamaki CM, Mehdizadeh M, Putnam AL, Spitzer MH, Ye CJ, Tang …
• Characteristics of High-Titer Convalescent Plasma and Antibody Dynamics After Administration in Patients With Severe Coronavirus Disease 2019.
  Open forum infectious diseases 2021 Bainbridge ED, Hsue PY, Esensten JH, Lynch KL, Hendrickson CM, Doernberg SB, Fung M, Chin-Hong P, Di Germanio C, Norris PJ, Simmons G, Glidden DV, Luetkemeyer AF
• Outcomes after ultramassive transfusion in the modern era: An Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma multicenter study.
  The journal of trauma and acute care surgery 2021 Matthay ZA, Hellmann ZJ, Callcut RA, Matthay EC, Nunez-Garcia B, Duong W, Nahmias J, LaRiccia AK, Spalding MC, Dalavayi SS, Reynolds JK, Lesch H, Wong YM, Chipman AM, Kozar RA, Penaloza L, Mukherjee K…
• Hospital-Based Donor Recruitment and Predonation Serologic Testing for COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma.
  American journal of clinical pathology 2021 Balcerek J, Trejo E, Levine K, Couey P, Kornberg ZV, Rogine C, Young C, Li PJ, Shy BR, Taylor JE, Bakhtary S, Friedlander T, Lynch KL, Bern C, Esensten JH
• Magnitude and Kinetics of Anti-Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Antibody Responses and Their Relationship to Disease Severity.
  Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2021 Lynch KL, Whitman JD, Lacanienta NP, Beckerdite EW, Kastner SA, Shy BR, Goldgof GM, Levine AG, Bapat SP, Stramer SL, Esensten JH, Hightower AW, Bern C, Wu AHB
• Processing laboratory considerations for multi-center cellular therapy clinical trials: a report from the Consortium for Pediatric Cellular Immunotherapy.
  Cytotherapy 2020 Lindgren C, Leinbach A, Annis J, Tanna J, Zhang N, Esensten JH, Hanley PJ
• Magnitude and kinetics of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses and their relationship to disease severity.
  Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America 2020 Lynch KL, Whitman JD, Lacanienta NP, Beckerdite EW, Kastner SA, Shy BR, Goldgof GM, Levine AG, Bapat SP, Stramer SL, Esensten JH, Hightower AW, Bern C, Wu AHB
• Magnitude and kinetics of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses and their relationship to disease severity.
  medRxiv 2020 Kara Lake Lynch, Jeffrey D. Whitman, Noreen P Lacanienta, Erica W Beckerdite, Shannon A Kastner, Brian R Shy, Gregory M Goldgof, Andrew G Levine, Sagar P Bapat, Susan L Stramer, Jonathan H Esensten, …
• Effect of combined low dose IL-2 and polyclonal Tregs infusion in Type 1 Diabetes patients.
  The Journal of Immunology 2020 Shen Dong, Cody Mowery, Kamir Hiam, Kevan C Herold, Stephen Gitelman, Jonathan Esensten, Weihong Liu, Angela Lares, Vinh Nguyen, Michael Lee, Ashley Leinbach, Jimmie Ye, Qizhi Tang, Jeffrey A …
• 253-LB: Effect of Combined Low Dose IL-2 plus Polyclonal Tregs in Type 1 Diabetes Patients.
  Diabetes 2019 SHEN DONG, CODY T. MOWERY, KEVAN C. HEROLD, STEPHEN E. GITELMAN, JONATHAN H. ESENSTEN, WEIHONG LIU, ANGELA P. LARES, ASHLEY S. LEINBACH, MICHAEL R. LEE, VINH Q. NGUYEN, AMY L. PUTNAM, JIMMIE YE, QIZHI…
• Development of a large-scale H3.3K27M-specific TCR-transduced T cell manufacturing method for adoptive cell therapy in HLA-A2+ patients with diffuse midline glioma.
  Cytotherapy 2019 K. Okada, A. Nguyen, P. Watchmaker, J. Xu, F. Ramsdell, J.H. Esensten, L.H. Butterfield, H. Okada
• Regulatory T-cell therapy for autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases: The next frontier.
  The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology 2018 Esensten JH, Muller YD, Bluestone JA, Tang Q
• Reprogramming human T cell function and specificity with non-viral genome targeting.
  Nature 2018 Roth TL, Puig-Saus C, Yu R, Shifrut E, Carnevale J, Li PJ, Hiatt J, Saco J, Krystofinski P, Li H, Tobin V, Nguyen DN, Lee MR, Putnam AL, Ferris AL, Chen JW, Schickel JN, Pellerin L, Carmody D, Alkorta…
• 319 Developing a database to track critical parameters for clinical regulatory T cell manufacturing.
  Cytotherapy 2018 B.R. Shy, J. Whitman, A.L. Putnam, A. Lares, Q. Tang, J.H. Esensten
• 66 Low levels of EBV detected by PCR during manufacturing of clinical-grade stimulated B cells despite treatment with antiviral drugs.
  Cytotherapy 2017 K. Lee, Q. Tang, J.H. Esensten
• Engineering Therapeutic T Cells: From Synthetic Biology to Clinical Trials.
  Annual review of pathology 2016 Esensten JH, Bluestone JA, Lim WA
• CD28 Costimulation: From Mechanism to Therapy.
  Immunity 2016 Esensten JH, Helou YA, Chopra G, Weiss A, Bluestone JA
• Cdk8 deletion in the Apc(Min) murine tumour model represses EZH2 activity and accelerates tumourigenesis.
  The Journal of pathology 2015 McCleland ML, Soukup TM, Liu SD, Esensten JH, de Sousa e Melo F, Yaylaoglu M, Warming S, Roose-Girma M, Firestein R
• Circulating proteolytic signatures of chemotherapy-induced cell death in humans discovered by N-terminal labeling.
  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2014 Wiita AP, Hsu GW, Lu CM, Esensten JH, Wells JA
• CD28-inducible transcription factor DEC1 is required for efficient autoreactive CD4+ T cell response.
  The Journal of experimental medicine 2013 Martínez-Llordella M, Esensten JH, Bailey-Bucktrout SL, Lipsky RH, Marini A, Chen J, Mughal M, Mattson MP, Taub DD, Bluestone JA
• microRNA-17-92 regulates IL-10 production by regulatory T cells and control of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.
  Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) 2013 de Kouchkovsky D, Esensten JH, Rosenthal WL, Morar MM, Bluestone JA, Jeker LT
• Intrinsic and extrinsic control of peripheral T-cell tolerance by costimulatory molecules of the CD28/ B7 family.
  Immunological reviews 2011 Bour-Jordan H, Esensten JH, Martinez-Llordella M, Penaranda C, Stumpf M, Bluestone JA
• The miR-17-92 cluster is essential for regulatory T cell function in vivo (168.14).
  The Journal of Immunology 2011 Lukas Jeker, Dimitri De Kouchkovsky, Jonathan Esensten, Jeffrey Bluestone
• Transcriptional profile of CD28 costimulation and Dec1 relevance in T-cell activation (113.14).
  The Journal of Immunology 2011 Marc Martinez-Llordella, Jonathan Esensten, Jeffrey Bluestone
• Plasticity of human regulatory T cells in healthy subjects and patients with type 1 diabetes.
  Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) 2011 McClymont SA, Putnam AL, Lee MR, Esensten JH, Liu W, Hulme MA, Hoffmüller U, Baron U, Olek S, Bluestone JA, Brusko TM
• Plasticity of Human Regulatory T Cells - Characterization of IFN-?-Producing Cells.
  Clinical Immunology 2010 Stephanie McClymont, Amy Putnam, Michael Lee, Jonathan Esensten, Weihong Liu, Sven Olek, Udo Baron, Ulrich Hoffmuller, Jeffrey Bluestone, Todd Brusko
• Regulatory T cells as therapeutic targets in rheumatoid arthritis.
  Nature reviews. Rheumatology 2009 Esensten JH, Wofsy D, Bluestone JA
• T-bet-deficient NOD mice are protected from diabetes due to defects in both T cell and innate immune system function.
  Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) 2009 Esensten JH, Lee MR, Glimcher LH, Bluestone JA
• NFAT5 binds to the TNF promoter distinctly from NFATp, c, 3 and 4, and activates TNF transcription during hypertonic stress alone.
  Nucleic acids research 2005 Esensten JH, Tsytsykova AV, Lopez-Rodriguez C, Ligeiro FA, Rao A, Goldfeld AE