Professor of Experimental Immunology

 

 

Contact details:

Tel:	+44 20 7882 2393
Fax:	+44 20 7882 2178
Email:	p.wang@qmul.ac.uk
Address:	Centre for Digestive Diseases, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, 4 Newark Street, London E1 2AT, United Kingdom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biography

1983: MD Suzhou Medical University , China .

1983-1988: Research Associate, Department of Immunology, Shanghai Medical University .

1992: PhD Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

1992-94: Postdoctoral fellow, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Stockholm

1994-1996: Principal Investigator, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Stockholm

1996-2001: Assistant Professor, Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, Lund University, Sweden and Associate Director, Molecular Biology, Astrazenica Lund.

2001-present Senior lecturer, Reader then Professor of Experimental Immunology, Blizard Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London.

 

Research Activity

Our research interests are in two areas; molecular mechanisms of MHC class I antigen presentation and antigen-mediated molecular signalling in T cells. Studies of MHC class I antigen presentation focus on the mechanisms for controlling the presentability of antigenic peptides by MHC class I molecules in antigen presenting cells (APC). Surface expression of MHC class I molecules in APC requires proper assembly with short peptides in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Unassembled or unstably assembled MHC class I molecules will retain in the ER to maintain a stable surface expression of MHC class I molecules. We are interested in the mechanisms that retain low-quality MHC class I molecules in the ER, especially the function of tapasin. Although APC stably present antigen to T cells, different antigens or different forms of antigen stimulation in a compatible antigen-presenting environment could result in different responses of antigen specific T cells. To understand the mechanisms, functional genomic approaches have been applied to identify genes controlling T cell activation or tolerance. Using a TCR transgenic model, Tg4, we have discovered that antigen stimulation induces two antagonistic transcription programs in responding T cells, the activation (T cell proliferation, production of IL-2, and IFN g ) and the suppression (proliferative unresponsiveness, repression of IL-2 and IFN g expression and production of IL-10). Dependent on the quality and quantity of the antigen, the outcome of T cell function is laid on the balance of these two programs. We have identified a number of signaling molecules and transcript factors, such as cytokine induced SH-2 containing protein (CIS), T-bet and early growth responsible gene -2 (EFR-2), which are among the key molecules regulating the balance of two transcription program. The molecular and immunological mechanisms of these identified molecules are studied in T cell lines and in established transgenic mouse models.

Based on the findings from our basic research, we established a novel vaccine platform to develop therapeutic vaccines for melanoma, HIV and HCV.

 

Key Publications

•  Kajsa M Paulsson, Marc Jevon, James W. Wang, Suling Li and Ping Wang. The double lysine motif of tapasin is a retrieval signal for retention of unstable major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). J Immunol. 2006 Jun 15;176(12):7482-8

.  Anderson, P.O., Manzo, B.A., Sundstedt, A, Minaee, S., Symonds, A., Khalid, S., Rodriguez-Cabezas, M.E., Nicolson, K., Li, S., Wraith, D.C., Wang P . Persistent antigenic stimulation alters the transcription program in T cells resulting in antigen specific tolerance. Eur J Immunol. 2006 Jun;36(6):1374-85.

.  Per Anderson , Anette Sundstedt, Emma Massey, Suling Li, David Wraith, and Ping Wang . IL-2 overcomes the unresponsiveness, but fails to reverse the regulatory function of antigen-induced Treg cells. Journal of Immunology 2005 Jan 1;174(1):310-9.

.  Li Li, Gronning LM., Anderson P., Li S., Edvardsen K., Johnston J., Kioussis D., Shepherd PR and Wang P. SOCS-6 inhibits negative signal of p85 regulatory subunit of phosphoinositide 3-kinase. 2004 Journal of Biological Chemistry 279(33):34107-114.

.  Per Anderson , Anette Sundstedt , Emma Massey, Suling Li, David Wraith, and Ping Wang . Differential Activation of Signal Transducers and Activators of Transcription -3 and -5 (STAT)s and Induction of Suppressors Of Cytokine Signaling (SOCS) in T helper (Th) 1 and Th2 cells. Int Immunol. 2003 Nov;15(11):1309-17

.  Kajsa. M. Paulsson, Per Anderson , Shangwu Chen, Hans-Olov Sjögren, Suling Li and Ping Wang. Tapasin associates with COPI-coated vesicles and directs the transport of assembled MHC class I to trans-Golgi network. J. Biol. Chem. 2002;277:18266-71.

.  Suling Li, Shangwu Chen, Xiufeng Xu, Anette Sundstedt, Kajsa M. Paulsson, Stefan Karlsson, Hans-Olov Sjögren, and Ping Wang. Cytokine-induced SH2 protein-1 (CIS1) promotes T cell receptor mediated proliferation and prolongs survival of activated T cells. J. Exp. Med. 191:985, 2000.

.  Suling Li, Kajsa M. Paulsson, Shangwu Chen, Hans-Olov Sjögren, and Ping Wang . Tapasin is required for efficient peptide-binding to transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP). J. Bio. Chem. 275: 1581-1586, 2000.

.  Suling Li, Kajsa Paulsson, Hans-Olov Sjögren,and Ping Wang. Peptide-bound MHC class I molecules associate with tapasin before dissociation from TAP. J. Bio. Chem, 274: 8649-8654, 1999.

.  Suling Li, Hans-Olov Sjögren, Ulf Hellman, Ralf Pettersson and Ping Wang. Cloninig and functional characterization of a novel subunit of the transportor associated with antigen presentation. Proc.Natl. Acad. Sci., 1997, 94;8708-8713

>> Publications since 2001

 

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