Dr Yang Zhang

Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy
Research Fellow

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 6970
Email
y.zhang.10@bham.ac.uk
Address
Department of Immunology and Immunotherapy
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Qualifications

  • PhD in Immunology, University 麻豆精选, 2010
  • MSc in Immunology, University 麻豆精选, 2006
  • MA in Health Service Management, University of Manchester, 2005
  • Bachelor of Medicine, Medicine, Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China, 2003

Teaching

  • BMedSci

Postgraduate supervision

Yang is interested in supervising doctoral research students in the following areas:

  • B cell immunity in tumours
  • Regulate the response of anergic B cells in tumours
  • Cancer vaccine, inducing antibody response to autoantigens in tumours

Research

Research interests

I am interested in vaccination-induced B cell differentiation leading to potentially self-reactive antibodies, as well as the generation of memory B cells with regulatory capacity.

My expertise in signals regulating plasma cell differentiation from GC may help understanding similar processes in locally inflamed tissues.

Current projects

My current work is focusing on how to break tolerance promoting the production of autoantibodies from B cells, particularly anergic B cells, by using conjugated vaccination. The immune system harbours large number of autoreactive B cells maintained anergy. Tolerance can be broken if sufficient stimulation signals are available, e.g. after immunisation with memory T cell recruiting conjugate vaccines. Recent work shows that anergic autoreactive B cells are competent to join germinal centre reaction and acquire mutations. Therefore, anergic B cells could be targets to induce response to tumour associated antigens. We recently developed a new genetically manipulated mouse model with hyperactive B cell receptor signalling. Most B cells in these mice are anergic, and we hope to utilize this new model to understand the phenotype of anergic B cells, and how to regulate anergic B cells to responding auto-antigens.

Publications

Highlight publications

Roco, J, Mesin, L, Binder, SC, Nefzger, C, Gonzalez-Figueroa, P, Canete, PF, Ellyard, J, Shen, Q, Robert, PA, Cappello, J, Vohra, H, Zhang, Y, Nowasad, CR, Schiepers, A, Corcoran, LM, Toellner, K, Polo, JM, Meyer-Hermann, M, Victora, GD & Vinuesa, CG 2019, '', Immunity, vol. 51, no. 2, pp. 337-350.e7.

Zhang, Y, Tech, L, George, LA, Acs, A, Durrett, RE, Hess, H, Walker, LSK, Tarlinton, DM, Fletcher, AL, Hauser, AE & Toellner, K-M 2018, '', The Journal of Experimental Medicine, vol. 215, no. 4, pp. 1227-1243.

Toellner, K-M, Sze, D & Zhang, Y 2018, '', Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, vol. 10, no. 5, a028795. ,

Zhang, Y, Garc铆a Ib谩帽ez, L, Brown, G & Toellner, K-M 2017, . in Germinal Centers: Methods and Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 1623, Springer, pp. 21-36.

Zhang, Y, Garcia Ibanez, L & Toellner, K-M 2016, '', Immunological Reviews, vol. 270, no. 1, pp. 8-19.

Recent publications

Article

Zhang, Y & Toellner, K-M 2022, '', The Journal of Experimental Medicine, vol. 219, no. 3, e20220012.

Zhang, Y, Garcia-Ibanez, L, Ulbricht, C, Lok, LSC, Pike, JA, Mueller-Winkler, J, Dennison, TW, Ferdinand, JR, Burnett, CJM, Yam-Puc, JC, Zhang, L, Alfaro, RM, Takahama, Y, Ohigashi, I, Brown, G, Kurosaki, T, Tybulewicz, VLJ, Rot, A, Hauser, AE, Clatworthy, MR & Toellner, K-M 2022, '', Nature Communications, vol. 13, no. 1, 2460.

Yam-Puc, JC, Zhang, L, Maqueda Alfaro, R, Garcia Ibanez, L, Zhang, Y, Davies, J, Senis, Y, Snaith, M & Toellner, K 2021, '', iScience, vol. 24, no. 2, 102038, pp. 102038.

Li, T, Yeung, J, Zhang, Y, Melody, T, Gao, Y, Wang, Y, Lian, Q, Gao Smith, F, Investigators, RAGA-D & Li, J 2017, '', BMJ open, vol. 7, no. 10, e016937.

Barone, F, Nayar, S, Dias De Campos, J, Withers, D, Toellner, K-M, Fisher, B, Bowman, S, Cloake, T, Zhang, Y, Fouser, L, Rangle-Moreno, J, de la Luz Garcia-Hernandez, M, Randall, TD, Lucchesi, D, Bombardieri, M, Pitzalis, C, Buckley, C & Luther, SA 2015, '', National Academy of Sciences. Proceedings, vol. 112, no. 35, pp. 11024-11029.

B茅n茅zech, C, Luu, N-T, Walker, JA, Kruglov, AA, Loo, Y, Nakamura, K, Zhang, Y, Nayar, S, Jones, LH, Flores-Langarica, A, McIntosh, A, Marshall, J, Barone, F, Besra, G, Miles, K, Allen, JE, Gray, M, Kollias, G, Cunningham, AF, Withers, DR, Toellner, KM, Jones, ND, Veldhoen, M, Nedospasov, SA, McKenzie, ANJ & Caama帽o, JH 2015, '', Nature Immunology, vol. 16, no. 8, pp. 819-828.

Zhuang, X, Ahmed, F, Zhang, Y, Ferguson, H, Steele, JC, Steven, NM, Nagy, Z, Heath, VL, Toellner, K-M & Bicknell, R 2015, '', Angiogenesis, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 83-95.

Zhang, Y, Meyer-Hermann, M, George, LA, Figge, MT, Khan, M, Goodall, M, Young, SP, Reynolds, A, Falciani, F, Waisman, A, Notley, CA, Ehrenstein, MR, Kosco-Vilbois, M & Toellner, K-M 2013, '', The Journal of Experimental Medicine, vol. 210, no. 3, pp. 457-64.

Meyer-Hermann, M, Mohr, E, Pelletier, N, Zhang, Y, Victora, GD & Toellner, K-M 2012, '', Cell Reports, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 162-74.

Marshall, J, Zhang, Y, Pallan, L, Hsu, MC, Khan, M, Cunningham, AC, MacLennan, I & Toellner, K-M 2011, '', European Journal of Immunology, vol. 41, no. 12, pp. 3506-12.

Bretz, J, Garcia, J, Huang, X, Kang, L, Zhang, Y, Toellner, K-M & Chen-Kiang, S 2011, '', Blood, vol. 117, no. 7, pp. 2179-2188.

Hong, FC, Liu, J, Feng, TJ, Liu, XL, Pan, P, Zhou, H, Cai, YM, Ling, L, Huang, XM, Zhang, D, Zhang, Y & Zeegers, M 2010, '', Sexually transmitted diseases, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 26-31.

Review article

Roth, K, Oehme, L, Zehentmeier, S, Zhang, Y, Niesner, R & Hauser, AE 2014, '', Cytometry, vol. 85, no. 1, pp. 15-24.