Research Interest: Immune-checkpoint proteins suppress
tumor-specific immune responses and hamper the efficacy of cancer
vaccine. My research in the past 7 years has been focused on
understanding how immune-checkpoint proteins regulate anti-tumor
immunity. My earlier work has identified a novel function of PD-1, an
established immune-checkpoint protein in regulating the differentiation
of tumor-induced adaptive Foxp3+ CD4+ regulatory T cells (PNAS, 2008).
My recent work has discovered VISTA, a novel immune-checkpoint protein
that critically regulates tumor-specific immunity (JEM, 2011). My
ongoing work focuses on understanding VISTA-mediated immune regulation
in, and designing novel combinatorial strategies that targets VISTA and
additional immune-checkpoint proteins such as CTLA-4 and PD-1 for cancer
immunotherapy