Tang Lab

Our research

Our immune system is constantly defending us from many diseases through profound interactions with invaders or diseased cells. Such interactions are multi-dimensional involving substantial biological, chemical, and physical exchanges. The overarching goal of Tang laboratory is to develop novel strategies to engineer the multi-dimensional immunity-disease interactions, an emerging field called ‘immunoengineering’, to create safe and effective therapies against cancer and infectious diseases. We leverage the power of metabolic and cellular bioengineering, synthetic chemistry and material engineering, and mechanical engineering to achieve controllable modulation of immune responses. There are three interconnected themes in our research program:

1) to reprogram immune cell metabolism with engineered proteins, cells, and molecules for enhanced proliferation, function, and longevity (Metabolic immunoengineering)

2) to achieve tissue-/cell-specific immune modulation using responsive chemistry and smart biomaterials (Chemical immunoengineering)

3) to manipulate the mechanical properties and interactions at cellular and tissue levels for enhanced immunotherapy (Mechanical immunoengineering)