Dr. Yang Cheng: Activated intrahepatic HBV-specific T & B cells correlated with acute liver failure

Описание: Dr. Cheng explores the role of T and B cells in hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated acute-on-chronic liver failure, highlighting that immune responses may sometimes worsen disease outcomes. Using patient cohorts from Singapore and Taiwan, they demonstrate that HBV-specific T and B cells are highly activated in the liver, showing tissue-resident memory phenotypes and strong proliferative and functional activity. Interestingly, these immune cells are largely absent in blood samples, emphasizing the importance of studying liver-resident immunity. The findings suggest that T and B cell activity, while antiviral, may contribute to liver damage and have implications for clinical management and treatment timing.

Biography:
Dr. Yang Cheng started his scientific career in immunology by working on T cell immune responses in chronic viral infection and type 1 diabetes using LCMV model in the laboratory of Dr. Matthias von Herrath at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in San Diego, California. After years of research using murine models, he shifted his research focus to understand human T cell immunity in chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection during his Master’s study under the mentorship of Prof. Mala Maini at University College London. Dr. Cheng completed his Ph.D. and postdoctoral training with Dr. Evan Newell at Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), where he spearheaded several research programs using highly multiplexed combinatorial peptide-MHC tetramer strategy and mass cytometry to comprehensively probed peripheral and intrahepatic HBV-specific T cells in patients with chronic HBV infection or hepatocellular carcinoma. His works contributed to the fundamental understanding of T cell exhaustion and memory responses during human chronic HBV infection, and identified novel HBV-specific memory T cells and HBV-reactive T cell receptors (TCR) linked to disease control. Following a short-term appointment as a staff scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Cheng returned to his home country, and joined the Institute of Biomedical Sciences (IBMS) at Academia Sinica as an Assistant Faculty Member in 2023. His research group aims to use various cutting-edge technologies to dissect antigen-specific T cell immunity in great detail in the context of human diseases. The main focus of Cheng Laboratory is to explore the functional relationship of tissue-resident memory T cell and the long-term immune protection against HBV-related diseases and SARS-CoV-2 infection.