My research has mainly focused on the field of T cells and inflammatory diseases. I have long been interested in studying the transcriptional, epigenetic, metabolic, and molecular regulatory mechanisms governing the differentiation and development of Th17 cells, with the aim of understanding their functions and regulatory mechanisms in relevant human diseases. In the future, I plan to focus on developing Gibbs free energy (ΔG)-based high-throughput experimental approaches to study DNA-TF (or DBP) interactions, with a major goal for precisely determining or predicting the function of key TFs or DNA-binding proteins in important physiological activities or human diseases.

2010-2013 National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS) Fellowship ($ 150,800)

2021 Best Paper Award 2020, Chinese Scientists with Cell Press

1. Chang D, Zhang H, Ge J, Xing Q, Guo X, Wang X*, Dong C*. A cis-element at the Rorc locus regulates the development of type 3 innate lymphoid cells. Front Immunol. 14,1105145 eCollection (2023).

2. Chi X, Jin W, Zhao X, Xie T, Shao J, Bai X, Jiang Y, Wang X*, Dong C*. RORγt expression in mature TH17 cells safeguards their lineage specification by inhibiting conversion to TH2 cells. Sci Adv. 8(34), eabn7774 (2022).

3. Chang D, Xing Q, Su Y, Zhao X, Xu W, Wang X*, Dong C*. The Conserved Non-coding Sequences CNS6 and CNS9 Control Cytokine-Induced Rorc Transcription during T Helper 17 Cell Differentiation. Immunity 53, 614-626 (2020).

4. Wang X # *, Ni L#, Wan S, Zhao X, Ding X, Dejean A, Dong C*. Febrile temperature critically controls the differentiation and pathogenicity of T helper 17 cells. Immunity 52, 328-341(2020)

5. Xu T#, Stewart KM#, Wang X#, Liu K, Xie M, Kyu JK, Li K, Ma T, Wang H, Ni L, Zhu S, Cao N, Zhu D, Zhang Y, Akassoglou K, Dong C, Driggers EM, Ding S. Metabolic control of TH17 and induced Treg cell balance by an epigenetic mechanism. Nature 548, 228-233 (2017)

6. Wang X*, Ni L, Chang D, Lu H, Jiang Y, Kim BS, Wang A, Liu X, Zhong B, Yang X, Dong C*. Cyclic AMP-Responsive Element-Binding Protein (CREB) is Critical in Autoimmunity by Promoting Th17 but Inhibiting Treg Cell Differentiation. EBioMedicine 25:165-174 (2017).

7. Wang X and Dong C. The CD70-CD27 axis, a new brake in the T helper 17 cell response. Immunity 38, 1-3 (2013).

8. Wang X, Zhang Y, Yang XO, Nurieva RI, Chang SH, Ojeda SS, Kang HS, Schluns KS, Gui J, Jetten AM and Dong C. Transcription of Il17 and Il17f is controlled by conserved noncoding sequence 2. Immunity 36, 23-31 (2012).

9. Xu T#, Wang X#, Zhong B, Nurieva RI, Ding S, Dong C. Ursolic acid suppresses interleukin-17 (IL-17) production by selectively antagonizing the function of RORgamma t protein. J Biol Chem. 286, 22707-10 (2010).

10. Wang X, Gao H, Shen Y, Weinstock G, Zhou J, and Palzkill T. A high-throughput percentage-of-binding strategy to measure binding energies in DNA-protein interactions: application to genome scale site discovery. Nucleic Acids Res. 36, 4863-71 (2008).

11. Gao H#, Wang X#, Yang Z. K, Palzkill T and Zhou J. Probing regulon of ArcA in Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 by integrated genomic analyses. BMC Genomics 9, 42 (2008)