A main focus of research is humoral immune regulation and germinal center biology. Operation of the immune system critically depends on intercellular communication among multiple cell types, frequently in the form of physical and dynamic cell-cell interactions. Germinal centers (GCs) are dynamically organized tissue micro-domains in which humoral memory is generated in the form of memory B cells and long-lived plasma cells. Using a variety of genetic, biochemical, cell biological, and imaging approaches, we ask following questions: (1) how cellular interactions critical for GC formation are molecularly orchestrated, (2) how qualitative and quantitative properties of such interactions are translated into cell fate decisions, (3) how lymphoid tissues and GC micro-domains are spatiotemporally patterned, (4) how such patterns facilitate productive while prevent unwanted immune activation at the same time, (5) how do memory B cells and long-lived plasma cells develop from GC and persist, and (6) how the central nervous system regulates these processes via physical neural circuits.

In addition, we also investigate (1) the molecular basis of the sexual dimorphism in humoral immunity, (2) the development of tissue-resident CD8 memory T cells in the context of viral infections, and (3) microglia dynamics and functions in the context of neurological disorders.

Through these efforts we aim to understand how crosstalk among cells within and beyond the immune system and crosstalk between immune cells and tissue microenvironment maintain homeostasis and develop new vaccine and therapeutic strategies to prevent or treat diseases.

2018 AAI-BD Biosciences Investigator Award

2017 HHMI International Research Scholar

2016 Wu Jieping-Paul Janssen Medical & Pharmaceutical Award

2016 CBIS Young Investigator Award, Chinese Biological Investigator Society

2015 Tan Jiazhen Life Science Innovation Award

2014 “Distinguished Young Scientist”, National Science Foundation of China

2013 “Employee of the Year”, Tsinghua University

2010 “Outstanding Talents of the New Century”, Chinese Ministry of Education

2009 “Scopus Future Star” in Life Sciences, Science News Bi-weekly and Elsevier

1. Heping Xu, Xuanying Li, Dan Liu, Jianfu Li, Xu Zhang, Xin Chen, Shiyue Hou, Lixia Peng, Chenguang Xu, Wanli Liu, Lianfeng Zhang, andHai Qi#. Follicular T-helper cell recruitment governed by bystander B cells and ICOS-driven motility.Nature496:523-527, 2013.

2. Dan Liu*, Heping Xu*, Changming Shih, Zurong Wan, Xiaopeng Ma, Weiwei Ma, Dan Luo, andHai Qi#. T-B-cell entanglement and ICOSL-driven feed-forward regulation of germinal centre reaction.Nature, 517:214-218, 2015.

3. Xin Chen*, Shan Tang*, Ji-Shen Zheng*, Ruozhu Zhao, Zhi-Peng Wang, Wen Shao, Hao-Nan Chang, Jing-Yuan Cheng, Hui Zhao, Lei Liu#, andHai Qi#. Chemical synthesis of a two-photon-activatable chemokine and photon-guided lymphocyte migration in vivo.Nature Communications6:7220, 2015.

4. Ran He*, Shiyue Hou*, Cheng Liu*, Anli Zhang, Qiang Bai, Miao Han, Yu Yang, Gang Wei, Ting Shen, Xinxin Yang, Lifan Xu, Xiangyu Chen, Yaxing Hao, Chuhong Zhu, Juanjuan Ou, Houjie Liang, Ting Ni, Xiaoyan Zhang, Xinyuan Zhou, Jianqing Xu,Hai Qi#, Yuzhang Wu#and Lilin Ye#. Follicular CXCR5-expressing CD8 T cells curtail chronic viral infection.Nature, 537:412-428, 2016.

5. Peiwen Lu*, Changming Shih*, andHai Qi#Ephrin B1–mediated repulsion and signaling control germinal center T cell territoriality and function.Science356:eaai9264, 2017.

6. Jiacong Yan, Bo Liu, Yan Shi,Hai Qi#. Class II MHC-independent suppressive adhesion of dendritic cells by regulatory T cellsin vivo.Journal of Experimental Medicine, 214:319, 2017.

7. Hu Yan*, Longyan Wu*, Changming Shih, Shiyue Hou, Jingwen Shi, Tianyang Mao, Wenbin Chen, Bhavani Melvin, Robert J. Rigby, Yingjia Chen, Haochen Jiang, Roland H. Friedel, Carola G. Vinuesa, andHai Qi#. Plexin B2 and Semaphorin 4C guide T-cell recruitment and function in the germinal center.Cell Reports, 19:995-1007, 2017.

8. Yifeng Wang*, Jingwen Shi*, Jiacong Yan*, Zhengtao Xiao, Xiaoxiao Hou, Peiwen Lu, Shiyue Hou, Tianyang Mao, Wanli Liu, Yuanwu Ma, Lianfeng Zhang, Xuerui Yang andHai Qi#.Nature Immunology, 18:921-930, 2017.

9. Jingwen Shi, Shiyue Hou, Qian Fang, Xin Liu, Xiaolong Liu, andHai Qi#. Regulation of follicular T-helper cell positioning and function by PD-1.Immunity,49:264-274, 2018.

10. Ruozhu Zhao, Xin Chen, Weiwei Ma, Jinyu Zhang, Jie Guo, Xiu Zhong, Jiacheng Yao, Jiahui Sun, Julian Rubinfien, Xuyu Zhou, Jianbin Wang andHai Qi#. A GPR174-CCL21 module imparts sexual dimorphism to humoral immunity.Nature, 577:416-420, 2020.

11. Xu Zhang*, Bo Lei*, Yuan Yuan*, Li Zhang*, Lu Hu, Sen Jin, Bilin Kang, Xuebin Liao, Wenzhi Sun, Fuqiang Xu, Yi Zhong#, Ji Hu#andHai Qi#. Brain control of humoral immune responses amenable to behavioral modulation.Nature, in press.