2022–2024First lab
Princess Margaret / UHN — Harding Lab
Cancer biology and DNA damage. Where research stopped being an idea and became something I actually did with my hands.
cancer recognition · t cells · gene editing
I work on editing the immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells.
I'm Sid, a scientist working across cancer immunology, T-cells, gene editing, and AI for biology. Almost all of it points at the same thing: helping the immune system catch cancer earlier and deal with it better. Scroll to learn more about me!
Campus
Salk
Dinner
scrolla cell, a strand, a route
fig. 01 · from editing to recognition
Editing rewrites a cell's instructions.
These instructions help T cells last longer and fight cancer better.
And embeds logic in synthetic receptors to help them recognize it.
history · fig. 02 movement
How the work developed
Harding Lab
Kaech Lab
Roth Lab
Brooks Lab
about
About
When I was 13 years old, I got really interested in immunology, and specifically memory T cells and controlling their states for the sake of cancer prevention.
Over the last few years, that work has progressed, and as gene editing tools have gotten better I have learned about new ways to harness and manipulate T cells to become better cancer fighters.
I'm going to continue on this journey until we make significant progress in this field.
in the lab
- Recognition
- Antigen identification, synthetic receptors, and how T cells sense cancer with specificity, sensitivity, and context.
- Cell state
- T cell state, memory, exhaustion, and what shapes whether cells persist and hold up against cancer.
- Gene editing
- CRISPR, perturbation design, and engineered cells.
- AI for biology
- Computational tools for reasoning about cells, perturbations, and experiments.
outside the lab
- Calisthenics
- I LOVE pull-ups!
- Biking
- hopefully I'm not going too fast...
- Music
- I play the drums and I like listening to jazz.
- Fried chicken
- An ongoing and very serious investigation.
work
Things I'm working on
CRISPR-All
A tool for designing modular genetic perturbations in T cells. The editing layer of cell engineering.
- CRISPR
- gene editing
- T cells
- interfaces
Recognition, sensitivity & cell state
How T cells recognize cancer, and how sensitivity, specificity, and cell state (including the role of noncoding RNA and lncRNAs) shape whether recognition holds or breaks down.
- cancer recognition
- T cell state
- noncoding RNA
- immune dysfunction
Memory T cells and cancer prevention
Research and writing on how memory T cells may shape cancer immunoprevention.
- immunology
- cancer
- memory T cells
AI for biology
Using computational tools to reason about perturbations, receptor designs, cell states, and experimental design.
- AI
- biology
- modeling
papers
Publications
The Journal of Immunology2023Published
Memory T Cells in the Immunoprevention of Cancer: A Switch from Therapeutic to Prophylactic Approaches
Siddhesh Mittra, Shane M. Harding, Susan M. Kaech
First-author review on how memory T cell subsets, especially tissue-resident memory and stem memory T cells, may contribute to cancer immunoprevention.
read →bioRxiv2025Preprint
A unified genetic perturbation language for human cellular programming
Work on CRISPR-All, a unified genetic perturbation language for designing and combining genetic programs in primary human cells, including T cell engineering contexts.
read →press
Featured in
New York MagazineSeptember 2025Feature
The AI Kids Take San Francisco
Kerry Howley's feature on the young founders and researchers reshaping San Francisco's AI scene. I was one of the people profiled.
read →University of Toronto SchoolsNovember 2023Profile
Out of COVID isolation came genius — UTS student publishes paper in The Journal of Immunology
A profile on becoming one of the youngest authors published in The Journal of Immunology. A memory T cell review that grew out of teaching myself immunology during the 2020 COVID lockdown.
read →video
Things I've explained on video
May 2025
Unconventional T cells and EVO 2
How unconventional T cells fit into the picture, and what EVO 2 adds to the story.
Jul 2023
A History Of Immunology In San Diego
A walk through the people, labs, and ideas that shaped immunology in San Diego.
Apr 2020
In vivo CAR T-cell therapy explained!
What in vivo CAR T-cell therapy is, how it differs from ex vivo approaches, and why it matters.