Immunotherapy of inflammation, autoimmune disease and cancer

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We utilize the knowledge and information acquired from studying the basic mechanisms of how the immune system interacts with mucosal microbiota, cell metabolism and apoptosis to understand the pathogeneses of autoimmune disease, chronic inflammation and cancer. We then develop more specific and effective immunotherapies to prevent and treat these diseases in the experimental animal models with a goal to translate the immunotherapies to patients with these diseases in the future. Specifically, we have been studying, (1) the effect of the mucosal microbiota in both gut and oral cavity on the development and homeostasis of immune system and consequently on the pathogenesis of autoimmunity, metabolic syndrome and cancer. We explore the possibility of manipulating the composition and diversity of the microbiota to prevent and treat the diseases; (2) investigate the roles of metabolism in the development and function of immune cells including T cells and macrophages. We manipulate the cell metabolism to change the function of immune cells for therapeutic purposes in experimental models of autoimmune diseases and cancer; (3) we study the regulation of cell apoptosis to immune tolerance and immunity, focusing on TGF-beta and regulatory T cells. We manipulate immune responses to develop antigen-specific therapy by inducing antigen-specific regulatory T cells to treat autoimmunity or to generate tumor-antigen-specific T effector cells to treat cancer.