2022 William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology;
2019 Future Science Prize
Investigator and Deputy Director, National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing
Endowed Chair Professor, Tsinghua University
Education and training
1991-1996 B.S., Applied Chemistry, Peking University, Beijing, China
1996-1999 M.S., Molecular Biology, Institute of Biophysics, CAS, Beijing, China.
1999-2003 Ph.D., Biological Chemistry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Positions
2004-2005 Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
2005-2009 Assistant investigator, National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing
2009-2012 Associate investigator, National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing
2012- Full investigator, National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing
2014- Deputy Director, National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing
2020- Endowed Chair Professor, Tsinghua University
2021- Adjunct associate director, Beijing Changping laboratory
Achievements
• Associate member of the EMBO (2015).
• Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2015)
• Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (2016)
• Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (2019).
• Member of the German National Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina) (2019)
• Future Science Prize - Life Sciences (2019)
• Tan Kah Kee Science Award in Life Sciences (2022)
• William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic & Tumor Immunology (2022)
Gasdermin-mediated pyroptosis: from antibacterial to antitumor immunit
Feng Shao
National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, China
Gasdermina are pore-forming proteins conserved from humans to bacteria and execute pyroptosis to stimulate immune responses. GSDMD is cleaved/activated by canonical inflammasome-stimulated caspase-1 and cytosolic LPS-ligated caspase-4/5/11. I will present the finding that LPS-activated caspase-4/5, but not mouse caspase-11, processes IL-18 in vitro and during bacterial infections, which mainly operates in epithelial cells. LPS-activated caspase-4/11, when occurring in brain endothelial cells, mediates BBB breakdown in response to circulating LPS or during LPS-induced sepsis. Lastly, I will discuss the role of pyroptosis in stimulating antitumor immunity. Specifically, cytotoxic lymphocytes kill GSDMB-positive cells through pyroptosis, mediated by granzyme A cleavage of GSDMB. IFN-γ upregulates GSDMB and promotes pyroptosis of cancer cells including that by CAR-T/TCR-T cells.
