what's new?

Our book chapter is now available to read!
Relationship between T cells and microbiota in health and disease 
 April 2020, Progress in molecular biology and translational science 171, 
DOI: 10.1016/bs.pmbts.2020.03.007
​Link
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"Redundant cytokine requirement for intestinal microbiota-induced Th17 cell differentiation in draining lymph nodes"
Cell Reports, . 2021 Aug 24; 36(8): 109608.

Our new paper is in bioRxiv.
 "Commensal-specific CD4 T cells promote inflammation in the central nervous system via molecular mimicry"
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.09.27.509786v1

View from my Office @UIC
​We are setting up the Lab.  Take this advantage to establish great environment to accelerate our studies.

Our Direction
As a new lab, we are trying to expand using multiple way. 

Our Research and goals

The extensive immune system in the gut is necessary for host defense against pathogens, but also contributes to autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Although Th17 cells are an important for both homeostasis and inflammation, other immune cells also play complex roles in generating the gut microenvironment by communicating with each other during homeostasis and diseases. Interestingly, various gut commensal bacteria have unique roles to generate both protective and pathogenic immune responses. However, which and how these bacteria can alter the immune response in our bodies still largely unknown. Our goal is to understand the regulation of protective and autoimmune responses by focusing on host-pathogens/bacterial and cell-cell interactions in the gut. By both identifying initiating factors (must be bacteria), which shape gut immune systems and understanding hierarchically controlled cascades driving immune cell activation using an unbiased approach, We hope to understand the complex immune cell network during homeostasis, infection, and inflammation.

So, our questions are
1. Which bacteria affect our immunity?
2. Which bacteria generate protective immune response or harm human health?
3. How can these bacteria change our immune response?
4. How can we therapeutically use bacteria?

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​We are also interested in human IBD. IBD is comprised of two major disorders: Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Although the same genetic mutations are often found in both UC and CD patients, the disease phenotypes between CD and UC are different. In my long-term plan, by interdisciplinary collaborations, We try to generate a “disease intestine map” using human biopsy samples from various CD, UC, and healthy controls. 

more information?

Meet Our Team

We are looking for great, friendly, motivative, and collaborative lab members. Contact us whenever you are interested in us. We can provide great environment and training for students, technicians, and postdocs!

Contact us

Please contact us if you are interested in our lab
Joining lab? Questions? We welcome your contact.

email

[email protected]

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phone

Office:  +1(312)-996-2270

address

835 S. Wolcott Ave. Room E833 MSB 935, M/C 790, Chicago IL USA 60612