Clinical Immunology and Infectious Diseases

Chih-­Hao Chang
Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA

Biography

I earned my bachelor?s degree in Biochemical Science and Technology and later obtained a master?s degree in Microbiology. Afterwards, I worked at Academia Sinica and focused on developing shrimp vaccines against viral infection. During the time, I decided to have advanced education abroad and went to the UK studying for my doctoral work under the mentorship of Professor Sir Andrew McMichael at University of Oxford. There my doctoral projects focused on the impact of HIV subtype tropismand evolution in shaping host immune response. After my Ph.D., I joined in Dr. Erika Pearce?s lab at Washington University School of Medicine.My major finding is to establish a link between cellular metabolism and its regulation in T-­?cell function. Overall, my studies will focus on understanding metabolic mechanisms behind immunity and the body?s response to infection. Itis highly important for designing new treatment protocols and therapeutic modalities for addressing these diseases.

Research Interest

Metabolism is the set of biochemical reactions that occur within cells to sustain life. As such, metabolism, by definition, remains the single most fundamental force driving cell fate.Over the last several years there has been intense interest in how metabolic events in T cells and cancer cells dictate their cellular function, yet there is still relatively little data on this subject. I am interested in understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control T cell fate and function during infection and cancer development. How does metabolism govern T cell dysfunction and tumor progression/metastasis in a local microenvironment? How do cells utilize nutrients/ metabolites to modulate their function and survival in the milieu? How are metabolism and protein expression coordinated through networks of cellular communication? I am eager to reveal detailed mechanistic roles of metabolic regulation on T cell effector function, which will offer novel strategies for drugdevelopment, disease prognosis, and immunotherapy.