Hai Qi
E-mail: qihai(at)mail(dot)tsinghua(dot)edu(dot)cn
Research areas:
I am an immunologist who studies 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. Employing genetic, biochemical, cell biological, static and intravital imaging methods, our research currently addresses four related 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, and (4) how such patterns facilitate productive while prevent unwanted immune activation at the same time. Answers to these questions will help improve vaccine strategies to prevent infectious diseases and therapeutic remedies to control autoimmunity.
In addition, we have more recently extended our investigation into (1) the origin of tissue-resident CD8 memory T cells in the context of viral infection, (2) microglia dynamics and functions in the context of neurological disorders, and (3) neural circuits that regulate immune cell functions in lymphoid organs. 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.
Selected publications:
1. Heping Xu, Xuanying Li, Dan Liu, Jianfu Li, Xu Zhang, Xin Chen, Shiyue Hou, Lixia Peng, Chenguang Xu, Wanli Liu, Lianfeng Zhang, and Hai Qi#. Follicular T-helper cell recruitment governed by bystander B cells and ICOS-driven motility. Nature 496:523-527, 2013.
2. Dan Liu*, Heping Xu*, Changming Shih, Zurong Wan, Xiaopeng Ma, Weiwei Ma, Dan Luo, and Hai 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#, and Hai Qi#. Chemical synthesis of a two-photon-activatable chemokine and photon-guided lymphocyte migration in vivo. Nature Communications 6:7220, 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*, and Hai Qi# Ephrin B1–mediated repulsion and signaling control germinal center T cell territoriality and function. Science 356:eaai9264, 2017.
6. Jiacong Yan, Bo Liu, Yan Shi, Hai Qi#. Class II MHC-independent suppressive adhesion of dendritic cells by regulatory T cells in 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, and Hai 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 and Hai Qi#. Nature Immunology, 18:921-930, 2017.
9. Jingwen Shi, Shiyue Hou, Qian Fang, Xin Liu, Xiaolong Liu, and Hai 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 and Hai 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# and Hai Qi#. Brain control of humoral immune responses amenable to behavioral modulation. Nature, 581:204-208, 2020.