Immunome Research
Open Access

Shicheng Yang

Biography

My education includes an MD in 1990 from Norman Bethune University of Medical Sciences in China, and later on a PhD in tumor Immunology from Sun Yat-Sen University of Medical Sciences in China. From 1999, I started to pursue my postdoctoral training at several prestigious medical institutions in the United States including the National Cancer Institute under mentorship by Steven A. Rosenberg, Chief, Surgical Oncology Branch. My specialized areas of interest and expertise lie in the activation and expansion of human and murine T cells, innovative methodological advancements to enrich anti-tumor precursors, the direct modulation of tumor-specific T-cell phenotype to enhance the in vivo anti-tumor efficacy for immunotherapy, and the genetic re-direction of T cells including CAR T and anti-tumor TCRs for clinical applications. In 2011, I was appointed as an Assistant Professor at Duke, Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, I led a research group to develop Dendritic Cell (DC) vaccination, ex vivo expansion of T cells, and block the check-points molecules such as PD1, PDL1 in vivo and in vitro; my group endeavors also include the development of bi-specific antibodies, CAR T, search for new biomarkers for cancer management and immune monitoring, and establish xenograft and synergeneic murine tumor-bearing models as an endpoint to evaluate the therapeutics. As an established cancer immunologist and manager, I keep abreast of current knowledge of state-of-the art principles and theories and adopt them to the new research proposals; I design, trouble shoot, and execute experiments, and supervise the collecting and organizing data for internal and external presentations and publications; I ensure the appropriate expenses to meet the proposed budget, and direct the research staff to keep their projects on track of timelines.

Research Interest

human and murine T cells, cancer immunology