Zhaoyang You, Ph.D.

Zhaoyang You, Ph.D.

Contact

Campus: Biomedical Science Tower, 203 Lothrop St

Office: W1046

Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Ph: 412-383-8641

youz@upmc.edu

Academic Affiliation

  • Assistant Professor, Department of Dermatology

About Research

The researches in my lab are aimed at understanding how tumor progression induces the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment leading to the subversion of naturally occurring or vaccine/therapy-induced tumor-specific immune responses and the resistances to oncogene (e.g., Braf) and/or immune checkpoint (e.g., PD1) inhibitors, discovering in-clinic small molecule(s) as novel vaccine adjuvants,  and developing vaccine/adoptive T cell transfer-based (combination) strategies to modulate the immune system to elicit broad, durable and effective tumor-specific T cells, which infiltrate into tumors and are functional in the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, against cancers including Braf and/or PD1 treatment-resistant variants, thereby benefiting the majority of cancer patients. 

Selected Publications

  1. Hao X, Falo LD III, Chen G, Zhang J, Carey CD, Storkus WJ, Falo LD Jr. and You Z. Skin Immunization for Effective Treatment of Multifocal Melanoma Refractory to PD1 Blockade and Braf Inhibitors. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. 9, e001179. 2021
  2. Zhang Y, Liu Z, Hao X, Li A, Zhang J, Carey CD, Falo LD Jr, and You Z. Tumor-derived high-mobility group box 1 and thymic stromal lymphopoietin are involved in modulating dendritic cells to activate T regulatory cells in a mouse model. Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy. 67: 353-366. 2018.
  3. Liu Z, Hao X, Zhang Y, Zhang J, Carey CD, Falo LD Jr, Storkus WJ, and You Z. Intratumoral Delivery of Tumor Antigen-Loaded DC and Tumor-Primed CD4+ T Cells Combined with Agonist α-GITR mAb Promotes Durable CD8+ T Cell-Dependent Anti-Tumor Immunity. OncoImmunology. 6, e1315487. 2017.
  4. Zhang Y, Chen G, Liu Z, Tian S, Zhang J, Carey CD, Murphy KM, Storkus WJ, Falo LD Jr, and You Z. Genetic Vaccines To Potentiate the Effective CD103+ Dendritic Cell–Mediated Cross-Priming of Antitumor Immunity. The Journal of Immunology. 194: 5937-47. 2015.
  5. Zhang Y, Tian S, Liu Z, Zhang J, Zhang M, Bosenberg MW, Kedl RM, Waldmann TA, Storkus WJ, Falo LD Jr, and You Z. Dendritic Cell-derived Interleukin-15 Is Crucial for Therapeutic Cancer Vaccine Potency. OncoImmunology. 3, e959321. 2014.
  6. Chen L, Taylor JL, Sabins NC, Lowe DB, Qu Y, You Z, Storkus WJ.  Extranodal induction of therapeutic immunity in the tumor microenvironment after intratumoral delivery of Tbet gene-modified dendritic cells. Cancer Gene Therapy. 20: 469-77. 2013.
  7. Tian S, Liu Z, Donahue C, Falo LD Jr, You Z. Genetic Targeting of the Active Transcription Factor XBP1s to Dendritic Cells Potentiates Vaccine-induced Prophylactic and Therapeutic Antitumor Immunity. Molecular Therapy. 20: 432-442. 2012.
  8. Liu Z, Falo LD Jr, You Z. Knockdown of HMGB1 in Tumor Cells Attenuates Their Ability To Induce Regulatory T Cells and Uncovers Naturally Acquired CD8 T Cell-Dependent Antitumor Immunity. The Journal of Immunology. 187: 118-125. 2011.