Yaoying Wu
Syracuse University, NY·Biomedical Engineering
In multiple sclerosis, the immune system attacks myelin, the insulating sheath around nerve fibers, causing lasting neurological disability. Close to a million people in the United States are affected, at an annual cost of about $85.4 billion.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Microbiology & Immunology
Pharmacology
- Topics
multiple sclerosis
autoimmunity
CD4+ T cells
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2028
What they work on
- Develop nanoparticles that encapsulate the immunosuppressant rapamycin and display proteins mimicking tolerogenic dendritic cells, including peptide-MHC class II plus inhibitory ligands such as PD-L1/2 and Fas ligand, for delivery to antigen-specific T cells.
- Test the hypothesis that these protein-decorated nanoparticles selectively suppress autoantigen-specific CD4+ T cells rather than T cells broadly, using antigen-specific T-cell readouts.
- Determine whether the nanoparticles cross into the brain and accumulate there, and measure their effect on central nervous system-infiltrated autoreactive CD4+ T cells in mouse models of multiple sclerosis.
- Establish proof of concept for a generalizable, personalized antigen-specific T-cell-targeted delivery platform that can be adapted to different patient MHC haplotypes and T-cell clones.
More about the research
Current drugs manage symptoms and dampen the immune system broadly, which weakens protective immunity and does not deliver durable relief. The problem this project tackles is selectivity: how to shut down only the small set of immune cells that attack myelin, and to do it inside the brain and spinal cord.
Why it matters
People with multiple sclerosis currently choose between symptom control and broad immune suppression that leaves them vulnerable to infection. A nanoparticle that silences only the myelin-attacking T cells, and that reaches them inside the brain and spinal cord, could point toward treatments tailored to an individual patient's immune makeup with less collateral damage to protective immunity. The same approach may be adaptable to other autoimmune diseases.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Hussein Sultan
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Microbiology & Immunology
Determine how the EBI3 subunit of the suppressive cytokine IL-35 drives induction of Tr1 regulatory CD4 T cells, using IL-35 reporter mice in established tumor models to identify which cells produce it.
Peter Aidan Savage
University of Chicago, IL·Microbiology & Immunology
Define the biophysical and structural basis by which T cell receptors from regulatory and conventional CD4+ T cells recognize the same self-peptide displayed on MHC class II, testing whether a more centered binding mode increases signaling sensitivity.
Ellen Robey
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Microbiology & Immunology
Define the molecular links between different branches of T cell receptor (TCR) signaling and the transcription factor network that specifies the CD4 helper fate, guided by a high-resolution single-cell map of T cell development.
The school
Syracuse University: 13 labs on PI Pages, $199M a year on research, 168 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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