Jieping Yang, Ph.D
Postdoctoral Researcher
Jieping Yang, Ph.D. is a postdoctoral researcher at the board of Governors Gene Therapeutics Research Institute at Cedars-Sinai. Dr. Yang received her bachelors's degree from the department of Biochemistry, Wuhan University, P. R. China. She then spent three years in the Chinese Institute of Zoology for her master's degree working on telomere shortening and cellular aging
In 2002, Dr. Yang came to Indiana University, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, where she earned her doctorate degree. Dr Yang's PhD thesis entailed the elucidation of the role of the HMGB1 as a novel bone-active cytokine specifically within the contexts of normal bone homeostasis. In addition, she also investigated the regulatory function of DNA Helicase Recql4 on osteoblast proliferation.
Despite the brain immune privilege, effective anti-tumor immune response can be generated in a variety of brain tumor models. Dr. Yang's current project aims to explore the cellular and molecular basis of anti-tumor T cell responses in the context of brain cancer, specifically T cells¿-brain tumor interactions. Previous work published by Gene Therapeutics Research Institute has shown that effector CD8+ T cells establish characteristic Kupfer-type and non Kupfer-type immunological synapses in vivo with adenovirus infected brain astrocytes. Furthermore, IFN-ã and granzyme-B were found to cluster in a polarized fashion at immunological synapses between CD8+ T cells and infected astrocytes.
Dr. Yang is currently characterizing the formation of tumor-antigen specific synapses and their capacity to segregate effector molecules to the immunological synapse. The molecular and cellular changes undergone within target tumor cells following T cell attack are also being explored. Knowledge of the formation of immunological synapses between brain tumor cells and CD8+ T cells, and whether they are responsible for the clearance of tumor cells in vivo, will not only augment our knowledge of the immune response against brain tumor, but also provide better ways of eliminating brain tumors by mounting a systemic anti-tumor specific immune response.
