Demystifying sex bias and rewiring self-reactive immune cells in autoimmunity - Bingfei Yu, Ph.D.

Exploring a surprising, sex-based genetic shift in immune cells: New research may explain why females are more likely to develop autoimmune diseases-and what we can do to help them.

Dr. Bingfei Yu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology and a primary member of Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California.

She earned her Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of California, San Diego, where she worked with Prof. Ananda Goldrath on differentiation pathways of T cells combating infectious diseases and cancer. During her postdoctoral research in the lab of Prof. Howard Chang at Stanford, Bingfei explored epigenetics, non-coding RNA, and single cell genomics to develop technologies that decode immune recognition and molecular blueprints. She is a recipient of the Parker Bridge Fellow award, supported by the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and the V Foundation.

Dr. Yu shared her research as part of the Tremblay-Jacobs Symposium on Human Autoimmunity: Novel Approaches,” hosted at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) on January 30, 2024. The Tremblay-Jacobs Symposium is the brainchild of LJI Board Director (2018-2024) Geneviève Tremblay Jacobs, a philanthropist committed to advancing autoimmune disease research. This annual gathering provides a unique forum to explore the latest findings on the causes and treatment options for autoimmune diseases while fostering the development of potential collaborations, and ultimately accelerating treatments for patients.

Presented at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI).

https://www.lji.org/events/seminars/