Yufang Shi

 

Dr. Yufang Shi received his Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Alberta. He held a University Professor title at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University and was a faculty member at the American Red Cross Holland Laboratory, and George Washington University. Since 2008, Dr. Shi has been working in his home country first as the director of the Institute of Health Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences and now the director of Soochow University Institutes for Translational Medicine.  Dr. Shi has been studying apoptosis, especially in T cells since 1988. His findings on activation-induced cell death (AICD), role of c-myc in apoptosis, opioid and stress-induce lymphocyte apoptosis, mTOR inhibitor and cancer therapy, CD4 + T cells and asthma, granzyme B and Th2 AICD, and MHCIb CD8 + T cells and autoimmunity are well-recognized. His laboratory is now focusing on immune modulation and tissue repair by mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Based on their licensing concept of inflammation on MSC for immunosuppression, his lab determined the influence of varied amounts and kinds of inflammatory cytokines on the immunosuppression of MSCs and established the "cell empowerment" model for MSC-based therapy and the concept of the plasticity of MSC in immunomodulation. Recent studies from his group have shown that (1) The plasticity of MSC in immunomodulation is decided by the presence of different amounts and kinds of inflammatory cytokines which are in dynamic changes during the initiation and progression of inflammatory diseases; (2) Distinct key factor, nitric oxide (in mouse, rat, rabbit) or indoleamine-pyrrole 2,3-dioxygenase (in human, monkey, swine) mediates the immunosuppression of mesenchymal stem cells derived from various species; (3) MSC exhibit immunomodulatory activities in various immune disorders, including liver injury, restraint stress, and tumors. Dr. Shi’s more than 200 publications has appeared in Nature, Science, Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology Cell Stem Cell, Immunity, J. Exp. Med and other journals with more than 16,000 citations. Dr. Shi is an Associate Editor of Oncogene, a Receiving Editor of Cell Death & Differentiation and an Editor-in-Chief of Cell Death and Diseases. He is an Associate Editor of Stem Cell Research and Therapy, Cellular Immunology, and Cell & Biosciences. He is currently on the editorial boards of Journalof Biological Chemistry, Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Journal of Molecular Cell Biology, and American Journal of Translational Research.