Research Interests

Currently, Lab. of Translational Immunology & Vaccinology studies on

(1) Heterogeneity of T cell exhaustion and T cell activation in tumor-infiltrating of CD8 T cells in cancer patients and patients with chronic viral infections.

(2) Pathological roles of immune cells in new emerging viral infections such as COVID-19, MERS, and SFTS and development of vaccine/therapeutic candidates for these viruses.

(3) Characterization of Protective immunity against acute/chronic viral infections (e.g. hepatitis viruses (HAV, HBV, HCV), HIV and influenza viruse) and new-emerging viral infections (e.g. MERS-CoV and SFTSV).

(4) Novel immunological biomarkers for prognosis of various infectious and immune-related diseases.

To this end, we are conducting sophisticated techniques in translational immunology using patients’ clinical samples and/or animal models.

In parallel, based on multidisciplinary studies in translational and basic immunology, we focus on the development of novel T cell-based preventive and therapeutic vaccines against new-emerging viral infectious diseases.