Qi Yang, MD, PhD

Dr. Yang received her Ph.D. degree from University of Pittsburgh in 2010, and previously an M.D. degree from Tongji Medical College, China, in 2004.  She completed her postdoc training at University of Pennsylvania under the mentorship of Dr. Avinash Bhandoola and Dr. Mark Greene, co-mentored by Dr. Angela Haczku. She joined Albany Medical College as an Assistant Professor in Immunology in 2016, and was soon promoted to Associate Professor at Albany Medical College. She joined Rutgers Child Health Institute of New Jersey as an Associate Professor in 2021. The goal of Dr. Yang’s lab is to understand the immune cell pathways and network in vital organs such as lung and brain at homeostasis and in inflammatory disorders, focusing on innate and innate-like lymphocytes.

Development and function of innate lymphoid cells and innate-like T cells

Current projects include:

• Investigating the function and regulation of lung-resident innate and innate-like lymphocytes in asthma, especially severe steroid resistant asthma. 
• Investigating the role of innate and innate-like lymphocytes in regulating brain homeostasis and cognitive function.

Our research focuses on understanding the function and regulation of innate and innate-like lymphocytes in inflammatory disorders. We focus on asthma and cognitive impairment disorders. Unlike circulating blood-born immune cells, a group of immune cells reside in non-lymphoid tissue such as various vital organs. Many of these immune cells possess innate or innate-like functional properties, although their ontogeny and function remain to be better characterized. These tissue-resident immune cells are capable of constitutively secreting various effector molecules, thus altering the surrounding microenvironment and influencing tissue homeostasis and organ function. Innate and innate-like lymphocytes are unique subsets of lymphocytes that are enriched in non-lymphoid tissues. Unlike traditional adaptive lymphocytes, innate/innate-like lymphocytes are primed for rapid activation upon specific or non-specific stimulation, and many of them are constitutively producing effector molecules even at homeostasis. Our lab has revealed complicated crosstalk among innate lymphoid cells, innate-like T cells, and adaptive lymphocytes in asthma. We have also performed pioneer work to explore function and regulation of innate lymphoid cells in the brain barriers. Our goal is to unmask the immune cell network in the lung and in the brain barriers, to reveal the interaction between immune and no-immune cells in the tissue, and   to reveal the essential drivers and regulators of asthma and cognitive impairment diseases.

• Our recent work uncovers complicated crosstalk among innate lymphoid cells, innate-like T cells, and adaptive lymphocytes in asthma. 
• We have deciphered transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulators that control innate lymphoid cell development, activation and lineage plasticity.
• Our studies reveal compartmentalized effects of age on innate lymphoid cell development and function and suggest novel immune cell mechanisms underlying susceptibility to influenza infection and cognitive impairment.

• Zhang Y, Bailey JT, Xu E,  Singh K, Lavaert M, Link VM,  D’Souza S, Hafiz A, Cao J, Cao G, Sant'Angelo DB, Sun W, Belkaid Y,  Bhandoola A, McGavern DB, Yang Q^.,* Mucosal associated invariant T cells restrict reactive oxidative damage and preserve meningeal barrier integrity and cognitive function. Nature Immunology. 2022 23, 1714–1725.

• Fung ITH, Sankar P, Zhang Y, Robison L, Zhao X, D'Souza SS, Salinero AE, Wang Y, Qian J, Temple S, Zuloaga KL, Yang Q. Activation of group 2 innate lymphoid cells alleviates aging-associated cognitive decline. Journal of Experimental Medicine.  217(4):e20190915; 2020.

• Ye L, Pan J, Pasha MA, Shen X, D’Souza SS, Hin Fung IT, Wang Y, Guo B, Tang DD, and Yang Q. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology; Mucosal associated invariant T cells restrict allergic airway inflammation. 145(5):1469-1473; 2020. 

• Shen X, Pasha MA, Hidde K, Khan A, Liang M, Guan W, Ding Y, Haczku A, and Yang Q.  Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Group-2 innate lymphoid cells promote airway hyperresponsiveness through production of VEGFA.141(5):1929-1931; 2018.

• Yang, Q., F. Li, C. Harly, S. Xing, L. Ye, X. Xia, H. Wang, X. Wang, S. Yun, X. Zhou, M. Cam, H. Xue, A. Bhandoola. TCF-1 upregulation identifies early innate lymphoid progenitors in the bone marrow. Nature Immunology. 16:1044-1050, 2015.

• Yang, Q., L. A. Monticelli, S. A. Saenz, A. W. Chi, G. F. Sonnenberg, J. Tang, M. E. Obaldia, W. Bailis, J. Bryson, K. Huang, A. Haczku, W. S. Pear, D. Artis, and A. Bhandoola. T Cell Factor 1 is required for group 2 innate lymphoid cell generation. Immunity, 2013. 38(4):694.