Qi-Jing LI

Qi-Jing LI
Translational T Cell Biology and Therapeutics

Lab Location: 5-13B Email: Li_Qijing@imcb.a-star.edu.sg Tel: 65869580

Qi-Jing was graduated with his B.S. degree from Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Peking University. During his junior year, he was fascinated by the dedicated balance between immunity and tolerance, which became the core theme throughout his scientific career. Mentored by Dr. Manuela Martins-Green at UC Riverside, he pursuit his Ph.D. in the area of wound healing, with a focus on signal transduction and transcriptional regulation of chemokine and chemokine receptor genes. As a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow, he was trained by Dr. Mark Davis at Stanford University, where he initiated his scientific career as a T cell biologist. Qi-Jing’s early research focused on the specificity and sensitivity of T cell antigen receptor (TCR). He made a series of contributions in determining the minimal subunit and rate-limiting step of TCR activation. His pioneer work introduced microRNA into the immunology field and determined that miR-181a as an intrinsic master regulator for T cell sensitivity. As a Whitehead Family Foundation Scholar, Qi-Jing started up his first independent lab at Duke University School of Medicine, where he established his research program in tumor immunology and immunotherapies. He has been investigating various regulatory mechanisms during T cell functional differentiation, as well as interplays between T cells and tumor microenvironment. Besides the basic research, Qi-Jing has translated his expertise in molecular biology and TCR antigen recognition into clinical immune monitoring and cancer immunotherapy. As an academic scientist, Qi-Jing has developed new technology platforms for immunogenomics profiling, engineered various cell therapy tools, and designed and aided numerous phase I/II therapeutical trials against various cancers. As a serial entrepreneur, he has co-founded three clinical stage companies to develop CAR-T (HRain Biotech), TCR-T (TCRCure Biopharma) and TIL (Hervor Therapeutics) platforms, and, brought multiple pipelines to clinical trials.

Research
Publications

Qi-Jing LI

A*STAR celebrates International Women's Day