I am an Assistant Professor of Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh and a member of the Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. I have a longstanding interest in T cell biology, with specific expertise in immunoregulation within the tumor microenvironment, autoimmune diseases, and pregnancy.

I earned both my bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Tsinghua University (2009–2018). During my graduate training with Dr. Chen Dong, I investigated the role of B7S1, a co-inhibitory B7 family protein, in modulating anti-tumor CD8⁺ T cell responses. During my postdoctoral training with Dr. Mark Davis at Stanford University (2018–2023), I expanded my research to autoimmune and infectious diseases. I identified and characterized KIR⁺ CD8⁺ T cells as a novel regulatory T cell subset in humans, marking the beginning of my ongoing investigation into the mechanisms of immune tolerance mediated by regulatory CD8⁺ T cells.