June 25^th, 2024
Dr. Nicholas Magazine delivered his oral presentation on SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant evolution and adaptation to human codon preferences, at ASV 2024, in Columbus, Ohio.

June 19^th, 2024
Dr. Huang received the COBRE Rising Star Award from the National IDeA Symposium of Biomedical Research Excellence.

May 6^th, 2024
Dr. Huang gave her ASPIRE Award Lecture on “ITK signaling in CD8 T cell homeostasis” in IMMUNOLOGY 2024 conference, in Chicago, IL. The the 2024 AAI ASPIRE Award. This award recognizes early career investigators who are within 10 years of their terminal degree for research accomplishments and professional promise in the field of immunology.

April 10^th, 2024
Congratulations to Michael for receiving the Distinguished Dissertation Award from the LSU Vet Med College, and the second place of the 2023 LSU Distinguished Dissertation Award!

April 1^st, 2024
In collaboration with Dr. Gianluca Veggiani and Dr. Mariano Carossino’s labs, we received an NIH R21 grant from the National Cancer Institute (R21CA283872). This project will focus to develop a molecular modulatory strategy to improve CAR-T cell quality with enhanced memory and reduced cytotoxicity.

March 1^st, 2024
Nick and Tianyi’s article on ‘Immune Epitopes of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein and Considerations for Universal Vaccine Development’ was published in ImmunoHorizons today.

January 23^rd, 2024
Tianyi’s findings of ‘Th2 and Th17-associated immunopathology following SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection in Spike-vaccinated ACE2-humanized mice’ was published in Journal of Medical Virology today.

September 21^st, 2023
Dr. Huang was invited to give a talk in the Shanghai Symposium on Veterinary Science and Public Health (2023). She presented our lab’s recent research on ‘SARS-CoV-2 Zoonotic Transmission and Host Adaptation’ led by postdoctoral associate Dr. Nicholas Magazine. Dr. Huang also chaired a session on host-pathogen interactions involving viruses and bacteria.

September 16^th, 2023
Dr. Huang gave a talk in the Southeast Regional IDeA Conference 2023 to introduce our research on ITK signaling in lung tissue resident regulatory CD8+ T cells during flu. She also highlighted our LSU Vet Med IDeA programs including the Louisiana Biomedical Research Network (LBRN),  the Louisiana Center for Lung Biology and Disease (CLBD), and the Center for Pre-clinical Cancer Research (CPCCR).
The Institutional Development Award (IDeA) is a congressionally mandated program that builds research capacity in states that historically have had low levels of NIH funding. It supports competitive basic, clinical, and translational research, faculty development, and infrastructure improvements.

July 14^th, 2023
Our exploratory research using polymerization and pattern-matching as key principles to develop high-avidity anti-viral precision medicine is funded by the NIH/NIAID (R21 AI166898).

July 1^st, 2023
Dr. Weishan Huang accepted an appointment by the NIH to serve as a Member of the Immunity and Host Defense Study Section (IHD), Infectious Diseases and Immunology B Integrated Review Group (IDIB), CENTER FOR SCIENTIFIC REVIEW (CSR), effective on 07/01/2023.

May 30^th, 2023
Michael successfully defended his PhD thesis on ’tissue resident regulatory T cells and immunopathology during influenza infections’. Congratulations Dr. McGee!

May 11^th – 15^th, 2023
Huang lab made its trip to IMMUNOLOGY 2023. Dr. Tianyi Zhang presented her work on COVID-19 vaccine in breakthrough infection (Poster), and Michael McGee presented his work on lung tissue resident helper T cells and memory B cells during influenza infections (Poster and Block Symposium). Drs. Weishan Huang and Gianluca Veggiani also represented the AAI and visited the Capitol Hill to advocate biomedical research.

April 27^th, 2023
The 2023 LSU Vet Med Faculty Distinguished Scholar Award was presented to Dr. Weishan Huang, for her major contributions to the advancement of veterinary medicine through research and/or scholarly activities that received national and international recognition.

April 11^th, 2023
Led by Dr. Rui Zhang, Associate Professor of Physics at LSU, we discussed the challenges in the combination of radiotherapy and immunotherapy for breast cancer. This review article is now available online in Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy.

March 20^th, 2023
In collaboration with Dr. Avery August at Cornell University, we reported the function of mitochondrial DNA polymerase γ in thymocyte development. This work is now available online in Frontier in Immunology.

March 11^th, 2023
Michael McGee, PhD candidate in Huang lab, received the 2023 Hannelore and Johannes Storz Student Travel Award from the department to travel to the IMMUNOLOGY 2023 conference to give a talk and present a poster on his recent research findings. Congratulations, Michael.

January 12^th, 2023
Michael McGee, PhD candidate in Huang lab, had a 3Q interview with Dean Oliver Garden to share his experiences and aspirations working on animal sciences and immunology at Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine.

January 1^st, 2023
In collaboration with Dr. Gianluca Veggiani (Protein Engineering) and Dr. Jian Xu (Electronic Engineering), Dr. Huang (Immunology and Virology) is selected for the 2023 LSU Provost’s Fund for Innovation in Research – Faculty Research Grants – Big Idea Research Planning Grants Phase 2 program. Our Big Idea project aims at the “Streamline Development of Synthetic High-affinity Binders for Rapid Diagnosis and Therapeutics of Emerging Infections”.

January 1^st, 2023
Dr. Huang received promotion to Associate Professor with Tenure.

September 14^th, 2022
Dr. Huang gave a talk in the Gordon Research Conference: Biology of Acute Respiratory Infection to introduce the role of PD-1 and ICOS in tissue resident regulatory T cells during influenza infections.

September 11^th, 2022
Congratulations to Michael McGee for being selected to give an oral presentation in the Gordon Research Seminar: Biology of Acute Respiratory Infection on ITK signaling in regulatory CD8 T cell development during acute influenza infection.

September 8^th, 2022
Our recent research on lung tissue resident regulatory T cells during influenza infection was published in Frontiers in Immunology .

September 5^th, 2022
In collaboration with Dr. Hua Wang and Dr. Shuming Nie at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, we were selected for funding by the National Cancer Institute to study “Biomaterials for Targeted Modulation of Conventional Type 1 Dendritic Cells” (R01CA274738). Dr. Huang serves as a co-investigator in this collaborative research project.

September 5^th, 2022
We published our protocol of retroviral transduction to study signaling regulation of T cell differentiation on Bio-protocol.

July 21^st, 2022
Dr. Huang gave a talk in the FASEB SRC “The Immunoreceptors and Immunotherapy Conference” , to introduce the role of T cell receptor signaling strength in T cell homeostasis.

July 3^rd – July 5^th, 2022
In the NANOTEXNOLOGY 2022 conference: Dr. Huang gave a seminar titled “Introduction to Virus Nanotechnology” in The 16^th International Summer Schools on Nanosciences & Nanotechnologies, Organic Electronics and Nanomedicine (ISSON22); and presented a research summary on SARS-CoV-2 evolution, diagnosis and therapeutics in The 19^th International Conference on Nanosciences & Nanotechnologies (NN22).

July 1^st, 2022
Dr. Huang received the 2022-2023 Research Publication Grant in Engineering, Medicine, and Science, from the American Association of University Women, to pilot research on tissue resident T cell development and function during influenza infections.

June 16^th, 2022
Our pilot project proposal titled “Modulation of TCR signaling for sustainable CAR-T therapy” is funded by the Center for Pre-clinical Cancer Research (CPCCR, LSU COBRE funded by NIH/NIGMS, P20 GM135000).

May 25^th, 2022
Congratulations to Michael McGee for receiving the first place award for Best Presentations in the 17^th LSU Pathobiological Sciences Graduate Student Symposium.

April 27^th, 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Weishan Huang for receiving the LSU Alumni Association Rising Research Faculty Award.  The award recognizes LSU faculty at the rank of assistant professor who have outstanding records of scholarship and published research.

April 27^th, 2022
Congratulations to graduate student Michael McGee for receiving the 2022 Hannelore and Johannes Storz Student Travel Award from the LSU Department of Pathobiological Sciences. With this highly competitive student award, Michael will travel to Portland, Oregon to present his thesis research in the IMMUNOLOGY 2022 conference.

March 19^th, 2022
Congratulations to postdoctoral fellow Dr. Nicholas Magazine for publishing his review article on “Mutations and Evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein ” in Viruses.

February 16^th, 2022
Congratulations to graduate student Michael McGee for publishing a research article titled “Evolutionary conservation and positive selection of influenza A nucleoprotein CTL epitopes for universal vaccination “. This article was selected as an Editor’s Choice article in Journal of Medical Virology.

September 09^th, 2021
Dr. Weishan Huang is appointed as a full-term (2021-2024) member of the AAI Committee on the Status of Women. The nine members of the committee will be responsible for generating and developing programs that assure equal treatment of all professional immunologists on the basis of merit.

September 08^th, 2021
Our collaborative project titled “A Rapid and Sensitive Technology for Direct Sensing of Intact SARS-CoV-2 Virions Using Designer DNA Nanostructure Probes and a Smartphone Fluorimeter” (R21EB031310) was selected for exploratory research award by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering today. Huang lab will participate in research design and lead the validations of the top candidates using both pseudotyped and live SARS-CoV-2 viruses.

August 22^nd, 2021
Congratulations to graduate student Michael McGee for being selected as a 2021 recipient of the AAI Careers in Immunology Fellowship. Michael’s project will investigate the role of ITK signaling in the development of chronic lung fibrotic sequelae associated with repetitive influenza infections.

July 1^st, 2021
Our research proposal (R01AI151139) on the “markers and regulation of regulatory CD8+ T cells during influenza-induced lung immunopathology ” was selected for funding by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

April 9^th, 2021
Dr. Weishan Huang received the Zoetis Award for Research Excellence today. This award is designed to foster innovative research, on which the scientific advancement of the profession depends, by recognizing outstanding research effort and productivity.

February 2^nd, 2021
Graduate student Michael McGee published a book chapter in T Regulatory Cells in Human Health and Diseases to introduce TCR/ITK Signaling in Type 1 Regulatory T cells.

December 21^st, 2020
Our collaborative U01 project on Detection and Automatic Privacy-Protected Contact Tracing System Designed for COVID-19 was selected by the NIH RADx program for funding.

September 1^st, 2020
Using genomics and sophisticated animal models, we reported today in The Journal of Immunology that TCR signal strength and antigen affinity independently contribute to CD8⁺ memory T cell development, which is modulated by inflammation, and suggest that manipulating TCR signal strength along with antigen affinity, may be used to tune the development of CD8⁺ memory T cells during vaccine development.

July 8^th, 2020
Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) signaling is involved in innate immune responses and regulates the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines that can contribute to COVID‐19 immunopathology. Clinical trials with BTK inhibitors in COVID‐19 treatment have been proposed, and previous studies have attempted to investigate the therapeutic effects of ibrutinib and underlying mechanisms in treating viral pneumonia. These attempts, however, did not consider potential off target effect of BTK inhibitors on T cell differentiation, function, and survival, which may be beneficial in treatment for COVID‐19. We summarized the current knowledge of BTK/IL‐2‐inducible T‐cell kinase (ITK) signaling in immunopathology and lymphopenia and discuss the potential of BTK/ITK dual inhibitors in modulating immunopathology and lymphopenia, for COVID‐19 therapy. This frontline review is published today in Journal of Leukocyte Biology.

July 2^nd, 2020
COVID-19 manifested multiple lines of symptoms, predominantly in the respiratory system. Mild COVID-19 patients however tend to suffer from neurological complications. In Wuhan, a number of COVID-19 patients developed neurologic manifestations. A long term of COVID-19 symptoms were observed in patients with milder respiratory manifestations, along with lower rate of virus-specific IgM/IgG sera conversion. Our retrospective epidemiological study was published today in MedComm.

May 27^th, 2020
Glycyrrhetinic acid and its derivatives share a similar molecular structure with steroid, and have been shown with anti-viral and anti-inflammatory effects in the clinics. Our group work with doctors and researcher in Wuhan University and Harvard University to test the therapeutic potential of diammonium glycyrrhizinate, a glycyrrhetinic acid derivative, in COVID-19 therapy. We reported a severe case of non-hospitalized COVID-19 which received diammonium glycyrrhizinate as alternative medicine and eventually recovered. This case report is online today in Journal of Medical Virology.

April 25^th, 2020
Dr. Huang collaborated with Dr. Feng Wu, and published an editorial article in Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology to discuss the strategies and SOP of diagnosing COVID-19. Dr. Feng Wu is a medical doctor in the Department of Critical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong. She is one of the first doctors who volunteered to support Wuhan during the initial outbreak. Dr. Wu has been helping the world to better understand the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 and sharing precious experiences gained by doctors during the Wuhan emergency.

March 16^th, 2020
The American Association of Immunologists had to cancel its annual meeting in Honolulu this May, due to COVID-19 pandemic. Huang lab has been preparing to attend the meeting with two selected oral presentations (by Dr. Natalie Nidetz and Mr. Michael McGee) and one block symposium co-chair (Dr. Weishan Huang), and is very sad about the situation. Cancellation is however a correct decision. We will continue to work on these projects and prepare to present them in IMMUNOLOGY 2021.

March 4^th, 2020
Dr. Huang, as one of the ten Public Policy Fellows of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI), visited the Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.. The AAI Public Policy Fellows and Public Affair committee members advocated for a predictable and sustained growth of the NIH budget for biomedical research. The AAI strongly supports the amount of at least $44.7 billion for NIH budget in FY2021, and an urgent supplemental bill to help combat COVID-19. As a constituent of the Louisiana State, Dr. Huang led the discussions with staffers in Representative Garret Graves, Senator John Kennedy, and Senator Bill Cassidy’s offices.

February 12^th, 2020
Congratulations to Jessica Elmore, Michael McGee, Dr. Natalie Nidetz and Orchi Anannya for publishing a meeting review on “Tuning T helper cell differentiation by ITK” , in Biochemical Society Transactions.

December 19^th, 2019
In collaboration with Dr. David Russell and Dr. Avery August at Cornell University, we discovered that ITK signaling promotes early pulmonary protection against Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. This work is accepted for publication in Frontiers In Immunology today.

December 16^th, 2019
Our research proposal (R56AI146226) is selected by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases as a High Priority, Short-Term Project Award. In this project, we aim to explore the “Heterogeneity and molecular signatures of therapeutic T cells in allergic airway inflammation” .

December 11^th, 2019
Congratulations to Dr. Natalie Nidetz for publishing her review article on “Adeno-associated viral vector-mediated immune responses: Understanding barriers to gene delivery” . This manuscript is online today in Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

November 12^th, 2019
In collaboration with Dr. Nooruddin Khan at University of Hyderabad in India and Dr. Avery August at Cornell University, we reported the finding that “Amino acid starvation enhances vaccine efficacy by augmenting neutralizing antibody production” . This work is published today in Science Signaling.

October 24^th, 2019
Dr. Huang was invited to give a special seminar in the Department of Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, at Peking University, to discuss “Regulatory T cells: Heterogeneity, Stability and Function” .

October 19^th – 23^rd, 2019
Dr. Huang was selected to give an oral presentation in The 17^th International  Congress of Immunology (IUIS 2019) conference in Beijing, China. She presented our lab’s recent findings that: “ITK regulates antigen-specific CD8+ T cell-derived IL-10 production and modulates influenza-induced pulmonary immunopathology” . Along with the opportunity to speak, Dr. Huang was also selected as an awardee of the AAI-IUIS Travel Grant.

July 31^st, 2019
Dr. Huang gave an oral presentation to discuss “Heterogeneity of regulatory T cells in the mouse airway during influenza infection” in the Cornell Institute of Host-Microbe Interactions and Disease Summer Symposium.

July 7^th– 12^th, 2019
Dr. Huang presented her poster on ITK function in CD8⁺ T cell homeostasis in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Science Research Conference (SRC)- Autoimmunity and received a Poster Award from FASEB.

May 11^th, 2019
Congratulations to Sabrina Solouki for publishing her first review article on “Non-receptor tyrosine kinase signaling in autoimmunity and therapeutic implications” . This manuscript is online today in Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

May 9^th – 13^th, 2019
Dr. Huang was selected to give a talk and present a poster in the IMMUNOLOGY 2019 conference in San Diego, CA. Her seminar title was: “ITK regulates antigen-specific CD8+ T cell-derived IL-10 production and modulates influenza-induced pulmonary immunopathology” . Along with the opportunity to speak, Dr. Huang was also selected as one of the faculty awardees of the AAI Early Career Faculty Travel Grant.

May 7^th, 2019
Michael McGee presented his work-in-progress on signaling regulation of type 1 regulatory T cell development, and won the 3^rd place award for his oral presentation in The 15^th Annual Pathobiological Science Graduate Student Symposium. Congratulations Michael!

May 1^st, 2019
Dr. Huang was selected to participate in The AAI Public Policy Fellows Program (PPFP) (2019-2020). The PPFP provides early-career researchers, who are committed to a career in biomedical research, with the opportunity to learn about and participate in the public policy and legislative activities of AAI. As an AAI PPFP fellow, Dr. Huang will receive training by representatives of the AAI and Congress, attend the AAI-2019 meeting in San Diego, and communicate with staff of the AAI Office of Public Policy and Government Affairs on public policy.

April 6^th, 2019
Dr. Huang was selected to give an oral presentation in The 7^th Annual Conference on Computational Biology & Bioinformatics of the Louisiana Biomedical Research Network, to discuss the “Heterogeneity of regulatory T cells in the mouse airway during influenza infection”.

February 28^th, 2019
HDAC11 is the known smallest histone deacetylase, and has been reported with immunomodulatory function, but its mechanism was unclear. Dr. Hening Lin at Cornell University and Dr. Ji Cao at Zhejiang University discovered that HDAC11 catalyzes defatty-acylation of SHMT2 to modulate the stability of type I interferon receptor on the cell surface. Dr. Huang contributed to determining the levels of membrane IFNaR1 in HDAC11-deficient cells during innate immune stimulation. This finding was published online today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

January 14^th, 2019
Thymic Foxp3⁺ regulatory T (tTreg) cells are critical modulators of the immune homeostasis. Led by Dr. Farrar at University of Minnesota, a collaborative team including Dr. Huang at LSU, and others at Medical College of Wisconsin, University of California San Francisco, Cornell University, University of Chicago, University of California Berkeley, and the Salk Institute reported two distinct thymic programs through which tTreg cells develop. This article was published online today in Nature Immunology.

January 2^nd, 2019
Congratulations to the Center For Lung Biology and Disease in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences at Louisiana State University for receiving a COBRE program award (P20 GM130555) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.  The Huang lab is part of the research team to investigate the regulatory immune mechanisms during influenza-induced pulmonary pathogenesis.

December 10^th, 2018
Congratulations to our Graduate Student Michael McGee for being selected by the American Association of Immunologists Travel for Techniques Award. Michael will spend a week visiting Dr. Charles Danko’s laboratory at Cornell University, to learn Precision nuclear Run-On & sequencing (PRO-seq) and Chromatin Run-On & sequencing (ChRO-seq).

October 25^th, 2018
Our article discussing the efficiency and fidelity of LAG3/CD49b co-expression as the molecular signature of type 1 regulatory T cells is accepted for publication in Frontiers In Immunology, as a selected original research in the Research Topic “T Cell Differentiation and Function in Tissue Inflammation” .

September 2^nd -5^th, 2018
Dr. Huang received the AAI-ECI2018 travel grant from the American Association of Immunologists to attend The 5^th European Congress of Immunology conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Dr. Huang presented a poster on the role of ITK/TCR signaling in tuning CD8⁺ T cell homeostatic proliferation, and served as a Chairperson of the Poster Session “Initiation of Immune Responses”.

July 12^th, 2018
Our pilot research program on “ITK signaling in type 2 innate lymphoid cell-mediated pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis” is funded by The Competitive Research Program (CORP) funds released this year by the School of Veterinary Medicine at Louisiana State University.

June 15^th, 2018
Our collaborative project with Dr. Avery August at Cornell University to develop and investigate “A novel murine model of allergic airway inflammation” (1R21AI138497-01A1) is funded by the NIH! We are proud to be a part of the joint effort in studying the development and regulation of immunopathology in the airway.

June 12^th, 2018
Our research proposal entitled “GCN2 signaling in pathogenic and regulatory T cell development in allergic airway inflammation” (1R21AI137822-01) is funded by the NIH! Cheers~

May 31^st, 2018
The Huang lab proposal entitled “T cell signals in immune balance and host survival during T. gondii infection” is funded by the LSU Center for Experimental Infectious Diseases and Research, as a Pilot Research Program of the Parent Award 5P30GM110760 sponsored by the NIH:NIGMS Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) mechanism.

May 14^th – June 1^st 2018
Dr. Huang was selected as a faculty scholar of the Summer Institute on the Future of Graduate Studies, by the Graduate School of Louisiana State University. This summer program provides an overview of central issues in graduate education, and a historical and structural frame for thinking about those issues.

May 4^th – 8^th, 2018
Dr. Huang was selected to give a talk and present a poster in the IMMUNOLOGY 2018 conference in Austin, TX. Her seminar title was: “The TCR/ITK signaling pathway regulates the counterbalance of effector and regulatory T cell development” . Along with the opportunity to speak, Dr. Huang was also selected as one of the faculty awardees of the AAI Early Career Faculty Travel Grant.

April 5^th, 2018
Our collaborative research with Dr. Nooruddin Khan’s lab at University of Hyderabad in India on “Amino acid starvation sensing dampens IL-1β production by activating riboclustering and autophagy” is now published online in PLoS Biology. Congratulations to Noor and the Hyderabad-Cornell team!

January 16^th, 2018
The Huang Laboratory is launched at Louisiana State University, with a collaborative research site at Cornell University! Welcome to the Huang Lab!

December 21^st, 2017
The August-Huang collaborative research proposal entitled “Itk Signaling and Type 1 Regulatory T Cell Differentiation and Function in Allergic Airway Inflammation” is funded (1R21AI129422-01A1)!