Mirco Julian Friedrich, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist specializing in hematology, oncology, and synthetic immunology. He leads the Hematology and Immune Engineering Lab at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and practices as a hematologist at Heidelberg University Hospital. His research focuses on reprogramming the human immune system to prevent cancer, enhance immune resilience, and promote healthy aging.

Trained in medicine at Heidelberg University and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Friedrich was an EMBO postdoctoral fellow in the lab of CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang at MIT. His work bridges immunotherapy and synthetic biology, and his current interests lie in human in vivo T cell engineering, TCR discovery, and mRNA-based immune modulation.

He serves as principal investigator of the first first-in-human trial of genome-edited cell therapy in Germany and has developed AI-guided tools to optimize delivery and immunogenicity profile of CRISPR nucleases. He has received multiple honors, including Forbes 30 Under 30, the MIT McGovern Technology Award, the National Award of the German Society for Hematology and Medical Oncology (DGHO), and Young Investigator Awards from the American Society of Neuro-Oncology (SNO) and the International Myeloma Society (IMS).