Nicole J. Piscopo

Nicole J. Piscopo (2015) began her journey in engineering at the University of Connecticut, where she excelled as a student in the BRIDGE Program, a five-week summer pipeline program for incoming freshmen offered through the Vergnano Institute, and earned a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering. During her undergraduate years, she conducted research in genetics and regenerative medicine, laying the foundation for her future work developing cutting-edge gene-based therapies. Piscopo went on to earn her doctorate degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she initiated the Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell workstream in a Human Genome Engineering Lab. Her work on Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) CAR T therapy earned her a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a prestigious honor in the field.

Today, Piscopo is a Senior Engineer in Cell Therapy Process Development at CRISPR Therapeutics in the immuno-oncology division. Piscopo leverages her expertise in human genome editing to develop novel allogeneic cell therapies for cancer patients. Her passion for bringing new treatments to those in need is matched only by her desire to inspire the next generation of engineers. Since her start with UConn’s Engineering Ambassadors, she has been a dedicated mentor to students of all ages—from Girl Scouts to incoming freshmen—introducing them to the excitement and privilege of a career in engineering.