The long-term goal of Dr. Im’s research is to understand the mechanisms of T cell immunity in disease models having highly sustained antigen levels such as chronic viral infection, cancer, and autoimmune disease and to use this information to develop new immunotherapeutics for the treatment of the diseases.
A. T cell exhaustion during chronic viral infections and cancer
B. Immunotherapy for cancer
i) Therapeutic antibodies against new immunomodulatory proteins
ii) Adoptive T cell therapy using endogenous tumor-specific CD8 T cells
C. Biomarkers for immune-checkpoint blockades in cancer patients
1. Im SJ, Konieczny BT, Hudson WH, Masopust D and Ahmed R. PD-1+ stemlike CD8 T cells are resident in lymphoid tissues during persistent LCMV infection. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (2020) [Epub ahead of print] (IF: 9.504)
2. Jansen CS, Prokhnevska N, Master V, Sanda M, Carlisle JW, Bilen MA, Cardenas M, Wilkinson S, Lake R, Sowalsky AG, Valanparambil RM, Hudson WH, McGuire D, Melnick K, Khan AI, Kim K, Chang YM, Kim A, Filson C, Alemozaffar M, Osunkoya AO, Mullane P, Ellis C, Akondy R, Im SJ, Kamphorst A, Reyes A, Liu Y and Kissick HT. An intra-tumoral niche maintains and differentiates stem-like CD8 T cells. Nature (2019) In Press (IF: 41.577)
3. Hudson WH, Gensheimer JL, Hashimoto M, Wieland A, Valanparambil RM, Li P, Lin JX, Konieczny BT, Im SJ, Freeman GJ, Leonard WJ, Kissick HT and Ahmed R. Proliferating transitory T cells with an effector-like transcriptional signature emerge from PD-1+ stem-like CD8+ T cells during chronic infection. Immunity (2019) In Press (IF: 19.744)
4. *Jadhav RR, *Im SJ, *Hu B, Hashimoto M, Li P, Leonard WJ, Greenleaf WJ, &9768Ahmed R and &9768Goronzy JJ. Epigenetic signature of PD-1+TCF1+ CD8 T cells that act as resource cells during chronic viral infection and respond to PD-1 blockade. (*Co-first authors, &9768Co-corresponding authors) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (2019), 116 (28):14113 (IF: 9.504)
5. Lee J, Hashimoto M, Im SJ, Araki K, Jin HT, Konieczny BT, Spies GA, McElrath MJ and Ahmed R. Adenovirus serotype 5 vaccination results in suboptimal CD4 T helper 1 responses in mice. J Virol (2017) 91(5):e01132. PMID: 28003483 (IF: 4.663)
(Tel) 031-299-6125,
(Email) sejinim@skku.edu