Wei Jiang, M.D.
Microbiome and cancer
Research Interest
I have 8 years of clinical experience in infectious diseases and 20 years of translational research experience in microbiome and B cell biology as well as their roles in immunopathogenesis. My research extends into two major areas of interest. The first major focus of my research is to understand the role of microbiome in disease pathogenesis (e.g., HIV, systemic lupus erythematosus, drug of abuse). We have found that specific plasma microbiome and its products impact on immune perturbations and disease pathogenesis; we further verified the pathogenic activity of disease-specific bacterium in vitro or in vivo in animals (e.g., Microbiome 2019; Arthritis Rheumatol 2019; J Autoimmunity, 2022). This work is currently supported by DA055523 and two internal pilot grants. The second area of my research is to understand the role of B cell perturbation and autoantibodies in disease pathogenesis, supported by AI091526, AI128864, and CX002422. We are the first group to determine that anti-CD4 autoantibody mediates CD4+ T cell death through antibody-mediated cytotoxicity and plays a role in poor CD4+ T cell recovery from viral suppressive antiretroviral therapy in HIV. Currently, we are developing therapeutic strategies to prevent anti-CD4 autoantibody production and its binding to the CD4 antigen, improve CD4+ T cell reconstitution, and reduce mortality and morbidity in HIV.