Qizhi Tang, PhD

Professor In Residence
M_Surgery
[email protected]
+1 415 476-1739

The Tang lab focuses on translating knowledge on mechanisms of immune tolerance into novel therapeutics for treating autoimmune diabetes and preventing transplant rejection. Currently, two major areas of work are on therapeutic application of regulatory T cell therapy in type 1 diabetes and transplantation and immune modulation to enable immune suppression-free transplant of stem-cell-derived beta cells for treatment of type 1 diabetes.

Regulatory T cells are a small population of white blood cells that are essential for preventing tissue damages caused by over activation of the immune system. The Tang lab has shown that infusion of regulatory T cells in animal models can reverse type 1 diabetes, a disease caused by immune destruction of insulin-producing cells in the pancreatic islets. Similarly, regulatory T cell therapy can prevent rejection of transplanted organs in animal models. A joint team of researchers from the Tang and Bluestone labs is currently conducting 6 clinical trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of regulatory T cell therapy in patients. In the mean time, we are developing next generation regulatory T cell therapies in preclinical models to improve the safety and efficacy of the therapy.

In patients with chronic type 1 diabetes, transplanting of stem-cell-derived beta cells can potentially cure the disease, but patients have to commit to life-long immunosuppression to prevent rejection of the transplanted cells from rejection by the immune system. The Tang lab is currently investigating approaches to shield the transplanted cells from the immune systems using novel biomaterials developed in the Desai and Roy labs at UCSF. We are also applying genome-editing technologies to immunoengineer stem cells to evade immune rejection.

Publications

Acquired immune tolerance 2.0.

American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons

Tang Q

Regulatory cell therapy in kidney transplantation (The ONE Study): a harmonised design and analysis of seven non-randomised, single-arm, phase 1/2A trials.

Lancet (London, England)

Sawitzki B, Harden PN, Reinke P, Moreau A, Hutchinson JA, Game DS, Tang Q, Guinan EC, Battaglia M, Burlingham WJ, Roberts ISD, Streitz M, Josien R, Böger CA, Scottà C, Markmann JF, Hester JL, Juerchott K, Braudeau C, James B, Contreras-Ruiz L, van der Net JB, Bergler T, Caldara R, Petchey W, Edinger M, Dupas N, Kapinsky M, Mutzbauer I, Otto NM, Öllinger R, Hernandez-Fuentes MP, Issa F, Ahrens N, Meyenberg C, Karitzky S, Kunzendorf U, Knechtle SJ, Grinyó J, Morris PJ, Brent L, Bushell A, Turka LA, Bluestone JA, Lechler RI, Schlitt HJ, Cuturi MC, Schlickeiser S, Friend PJ, Miloud T, Scheffold A, Secchi A, Crisalli K, Kang SM, Hilton R, Banas B, Blancho G, Volk HD, Lombardi G, Wood KJ, Geissler EK

Report of the Key Opinion Leaders Meeting on Stem Cell-derived Beta Cells.

Transplantation

Odorico J, Markmann J, Melton D, Greenstein J, Hwa A, Nostro C, Rezania A, Oberholzer J, Pipeleers D, Yang L, Cowan C, Huangfu D, Egli D, Ben-David U, Vallier L, Grey ST, Tang Q, Roep B, Ricordi C, Naji A, Orlando G, Anderson DG, Poznansky M, Ludwig B, Tomei A, Greiner DL, Graham M, Carpenter M, Migliaccio G, D'Amour K, Hering B, Piemonti L, Berney T, Rickels M, Kay T, Adams A

Minimum Information about T Regulatory Cells: A Step toward Reproducibility and Standardization.

Frontiers in immunology

Fuchs A, Gliwinski M, Grageda N, Spiering R, Abbas AK, Appel S, Bacchetta R, Battaglia M, Berglund D, Blazar B, Bluestone JA, Bornhäuser M, Ten Brinke A, Brusko TM, Cools N, Cuturi MC, Geissler E, Giannoukakis N, Golab K, Hafler DA, van Ham SM, Hester J, Hippen K, Di Ianni M, Ilic N, Isaacs J, Issa F, Iwaszkiewicz-Grzes D, Jaeckel E, Joosten I, Klatzmann D, Koenen H, van Kooten C, Korsgren O, Kretschmer K, Levings M, Marek-Trzonkowska NM, Martinez-Llordella M, Miljkovic D, Mills KHG, Miranda JP, Piccirillo CA, Putnam AL, Ritter T, Roncarolo MG, Sakaguchi S, Sánchez-Ramón S, Sawitzki B, Sofronic-Milosavljevic L, Sykes M, Tang Q, Vives-Pi M, Waldmann H, Witkowski P, Wood KJ, Gregori S, Hilkens CMU, Lombardi G, Lord P, Martinez-Caceres EM, Trzonkowski P