Research Area
Our laboratory studies immune regulation and its relevance to diseases including cancer. Recent work has focused on the signaling, metabolic, and transcriptional mechanisms of T cell regulation as well as tumor-elicited innate and adaptive immune responses, and how this knowledge can be translated for novel cancer immunotherapy. Our work has been instrumental in establishing novel regulatory pathways of adaptive T cell responses in tumor and unraveling new modules of cancer immunosurveillance mediated by distinct lineages of innate lymphocytes and innate-like T cells. Collectively, our findings demonstrate discrete classes of tumor-elicited immunity and tolerance responses, which supports cancer immunology as a new immunology discipline that transcends the classical “self versus non-self” doctrine, with the underlying molecular and cellular circuitries exploitable for novel biologics- and cell-based cancer therapies.
Team Description
Committed to a community of creativity and inclusiveness, we are a group of dedicated and collaborative researchers who enjoy doing mechanistic science and strive to translate our scientific discoveries for diseases therapies including cancer immunotherapy.
Team Members
Team Show
Publications
1. R.A. Franklin, W. Liao, A. Sarkar, M.V. Kim, M.R. Bivona, K. Liu, E.G. Pamer, M.O. Li. The Cellular and Molecular Origin of Tumor-associated Macrophages. Science 2014, 344: 921-925.
2. C.T. Luo, W. Liao, S. Dadi, A. Toure, M.O. Li. Graded Foxo1 Activity in Regulatory T Cells Differentiates Tumor Immunity from Spontaneous Autoimmunity. Nature 2016, 529: 532-536.
3. S. Dadi, S. Chhangawala, B.M. Whitlock, R.A. Franklin, C.T. Luo, S.A. Oh, A. Toure, Y. Pritykin, M. Huse, C.S. Leslie, M.O. Li. Cancer Immunosurveillance by Tissue-resident Innate Lymphoid Cells and Innate-like T Cells. Cell 2016, 164: 365-377.
4. M. Liu, F. Kuo, K.J. Capistrano, D. Kang, B.G. Nixon, W. Shi, C. Chou, M.H. Do, E.G. Stamatiades, S. Gao, S. Li, Y. Chen, J.J. Hsieh, A.A. Hakimi, I. Taniuchi, T.A. Chan, M.O. Li. TGF-beta Suppresses Type 2 Immunity to Cancer. Nature 2020, 587: 115-120.
5. S. Li, M. Liu, M.H. Do, C. Chou, E.G. Stamatiades, B.G. Nixon, W. Shi, X. Zhang, P. Li, S. Gao, K.J. Capistrano, H. Xu, N.V. Cheung, M.O. Li. Cancer Immunotherapy via Targeted TGF-beta Signaling Blockade in TH Cells. Nature 2020, 587: 121-125.
6. C. Chou*, X. Zhang*, C. Krishna, B.G. Nixon, S. Dadi, K.J. Capistrano, E.R. Kansler, M. Steele, J. Han, A. Shyu, J. Zhang, E.G. Stamatiades, M. Liu, S. Li, M.H. Do, D.S. Kang, C. Chen, I.H. Wei, E.P. Pappou, M.R. Weiser, J. Garcia-Aguilar, J.J. Smith, C.S. Leslie, M.O. Li. Programme of Self-Reactive Innate-Like T Cell-Mediated Cancer Immunity. Nature 2022, 605: 139-145.
7. E.R. Kansler*, S. Dadi*, C. Krishna, B.G. Nixon, E.G. Stamatiades, M. Liu, F. Kuo, J. Zhang, X. Zhang, K. Capistrano, K.A. Blum, K. Weiss, R.M. Kedl, G. Cui, K. Ikuta, T.A. Chan, C.S. Leslie, A.A. Hakimi, M.O. Li. Cytotoxic Innate Lymphoid Cells Sense Cancer Cell-Expressed Interleukin-15 to Suppress Human and Murine Malignancies. Nat Immunol. 2022, 23: 904-915.
8. B.G. Nixon, C. Chou, C. Krishna, S. Dadi. A.O. Michel, A.E. Cornish, E.R. Kansler, M.H. Do, X. Wang, K.J. Capistrano. A.Y. Rudensky, C.S. Leslie, M.O. Li. Cytotoxic Granzyme C-Expressing ILC1s Contribute to Antitumor Immunity and Neonatal Autoimmunity. Sci Immunol. 2022, 7: eabi8642.
9. B.G. Nixon, F. Kuo, L. Ji, M. Liu, K. Capistrano, M. Do, R.A. Franklin, X. Wu, E.R. Kansler, R.M. Srivastava, T.A. Purohit, A. Sanchez, L. Vuong, C. Krishna, X. Wang, H.C. Morse III, J.J. Hsieh, T.A. Chan, K.M. Murphy, J.J. Moon, A.A. Hakimi, M.O. Li. Tumor-Associated Macrophages Expressing the Transcription Factor IRF8 Promote T Cell Exhaustion in Cancer. Immunity 2022, 55: 2044-2058.
10. X. Zhang, S. Li, I. Malik, M.H. Do, L. Ji, C. Chou, W. Shi, K.J. Capistrano, J. Zhang, T.W. Hsu, B.G. Nixon, K. Xu, X. Wang, A. Ballabio, L.S. Scjmidt, A.M. Linehan, M.O. Li. Reprogram Tumor-Associated Macrophages to Outmatch Cancer Cell Competition. Nature 2023, (in press).