Bio
How fibroblasts participate in the organ fibrosis and whether targeting fibroblasts is a good strategy to reverse fibrosis is still a mystery. We have identified two important immune checkpoints, CD47 and PD-L1, are highly expressed in fibroblasts and blocking CD47 and PD-L1 reversed lung fibrosis. This is a prove of concept that targeting immune regulatory pathways could be an effective therapeutic approach to treat fibrotic diseases. In addition to identifying novel targets for the treatment of fibrosis, I am also interested in the crosstalk between fibroblasts and innate immune cells in the development of fibrosis. Combined with cutting-edge NGS approaches including single cell sequencing, spatial transcriptomics and high-dimensional CyTOF technique, we have identified several potential targets and characterized immune cells landscape in lung fibrosis. In the long run, I will focus on the validation of these targets. Specifically, I will apply gain- and loss-function approaches to investigate their role in fibrosis in vitro and in vivo.
