Gianfranco (Franco) Yee

Gianfranco Yee is a cancer engineer designing therapeutic strategies at the cellular frontier—where the microbiome meets the immune system. At Memorial Sloan Kettering, he’s developing microbiome-informed interventions to reprogram immune function and disrupt tumor progression. His work draws from synthetic biology, immunoengineering, and microbial ecology to construct living systems that heal from within.

 

As an MIT-trained biological engineer and Hertz Fellow, Franco’s research spans from gut-on-a-chip modeling to bioengineered vaccines. His mission is not just curative, but transformative: to reimagine how we diagnose, modulate, and personalize cancer therapy using the body’s most ancient symbionts. Beyond the lab, he is a co-founder of Momentum AI, a computer science outreach initiative serving hundreds of underserved students globally.