Dominik Schmiedel is a biochemist and immunologist with backgrounds in NK cell biology and vaccination immunology. Since 2020, he is a group leader, heading the “NK cell technologies” unit at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI) in Leipzig, Germany. His research focuses on the development of novel therapeutic approaches against cancer based on natural killer (NK) cells, encompassing immune cell engineering, and associated technology development for immuno-oncology. His work bridges translational immune cell biology, protein design, and gene transfer with a particular view on manufacturability and regulatory affairs, to advance cell and gene therapies toward clinical application.