课题组的兴趣方向是病原体和免疫系统之间的相互作用。病原微生物感染对人类健康造成持续的威胁。得益于免疫系统的出色工作，使得大多数人能够在感染性微生物引起症状之前，成功将其消灭。我们实验室的兴趣在于了解免疫系统如何抵抗病原微生物。利用免疫学、微生物学、分子生物学、生物化学、遗传学、细胞生物学等方法，对宿主免疫系统防御感染的机制进行深入剖析，以期研发疫苗和抗感染药物，获得新的传染病防治策略。目前我们感兴趣的病原微生物包括：结核分枝杆菌、金黄色葡萄球菌、李斯特菌、流感病毒、诺如病毒、疱疹病毒等。我们近期研究的侧重是宿主的细胞自噬通路如何调节抗感染免疫，以及疫苗诱导组织驻留T细胞产生的机制及保护机制。

长期专注于大自噬在感染和免疫中的生理功能和作用机制研究，取得了多项重要发现。首次揭示了自噬因子调节免疫稳态和抗菌免疫的作用机制（Nature Microbiology, 2020）；揭示了自噬在内毒素败血症中的免疫调控机理（Autophagy, 2023）；开创性地发现自噬介导抗结核分枝杆菌免疫中的关键作用机制（Nature Microbiology, 2024）。共发表论文15篇，并通过这些工作逐步建立了国际辨识度，多次受邀参加Keystone等国际会议并做报告；多次为Autophagy、Nature Microbiology等杂志审稿；受邀为Current Opinion in Microbiology撰写综述。

2025 基金委青年项目（B类）[原国家优青]

2024 北京市杰出青年项目

2022 中国细胞生物学会青年女科学家基金

科研论文：

1. Feng S*, Nehls EM*, Kinsella RL, Chowdhury CS, Chavez SM, Naik SK, McKee SR, Winkle JA, Dubey N, Samuels A, Swain A, Cui X, Hendrix SV, Woodson R, Kreamalmeyer D, Smirnov A, Artyomov MN, Virgin HW, Wang YT#, Stallings CL#. Autophagy promotes efficient T cell responses to restrict high-dose Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in mice. Nature Microbiology. 2024. #corresponding author, *co-first author.

2. Strine MS, Fagerberg E, Darcy PW, Barrón GM, Filler RB, Alfajaro MM, D'Angelo-Gavrish N, Wang F, Graziano VR, Menasché BL, Damo M, Wang YT, Howitt MR, Lee S, Joshi NS, Mucida D, Wilen CB. Intestinal tuft cell immune privilege enables norovirus persistence. Science Immunology. 2024 Mar 22;9(93):eadi7038.

3. Wang YT#, Zaitsev K, Lu Q, Li S, Schaiff WT, Kim KW, Droit L, Wilen CB, Desai C, Balce DR, Orchard RC, Orvedahl A, Park S, Kreamalmeyer D, Handley SA, Pfeifer JD, Baldridge MT, Artyomov MN, Stallings CL#, Virgin HW#. Select autophagy genes maintain quiescence of tissue-resident macrophages and increase susceptibility to Listeria monocytogenes. Nature Microbiology. 2020 Feb;5(2):272-281. #corresponding author.

4. Wang YT, Sansone A, Smirnov A, Stallings CL, Orvedahl A. Myeloid autophagy genes protect mice against fatal TNF- and LPS-induced cytokine storm syndromes. Autophagy 2022;1–14.

5. Greene CJ, Nguyen JA, Cheung SM, Arnold CR, Balce, DR, Wang YT, Soderholm A, McKenna N, Aggarwal D, Campden RI, Ewanchuk BW, Virgin HW, Yates RM. Macrophages disseminate pathogen associated molecular patterns through the direct extracellular release of the soluble content of their phagolysosomes. Nature Communication. 2022 Jun 2;13(1):3072.

6. Balce DR, Wang YT, McAllaster MR, Dunlap BF., Orvedahl A, Hykes B, Droit L, Handley SA, Wilen CB, Doench JG, Orchard RC, Stallings SL, Virgin HW. UFMylation inhibits the pro-inflammatory capacity of interferon-γ-activated macrophages. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2021 Jan 5;118(1):e2011763118.

7. Wilen CB, Lee S, Hsieh LL, Orchard RC, Desai C, Hykes BL Jr, McAllaster MR, Balce DR, Feehley T, Brestoff JR, Hickey CA, Yokoyama CC, Wang YT, MacDuff DA, Kreamalmayer D, Howitt MR, Neil JA, Cadwell K, Allen PM, Handley SA, van Lookeren Campagne M, Baldridge MT, Virgin HW. Tropism for tuft cells determines immune promotion of norovirus pathogenesis. Science. 2018 Apr 13;360(6385):204-208.

8. Wang YT, Missiakas D, Schneewind O. GneZ, a UDP-GlcNAc 2-epimerase, is required for S-layer assembly and vegetative growth of Bacillus anthracis. J Bacteriol. 2014 Aug 15;196(16):2969-78.

9. Wang YT, Oh SY, Hendrickx AP, Lunderberg JM, Schneewind O. Bacillus cereus G9241 S-layer assembly contributes to the pathogenesis of anthrax-like disease in mice. J Bacteriol. 2013 Feb;195(3):596-605.

10. Garufi G*, Wang YT*, Oh SY, Maier H, Missiakas DM, Schneewind O. Sortase-conjugation generates a capsule vaccine that protects guinea pigs against Bacillus anthracis. Vaccine. 2012 May 14;30(23):3435-44. *co-first author.

受邀综述：

1. Cui X, Wang YT#, Function of autophagy genes in innate immune defense against mucosal pathogens. Current Opinion in Microbiology. 2024 Mar 29;79:102456.

书籍著作：

1. Feng S,Wang YT. Pathogenicity Islands: Origins, Structure, and Roles in Bacterial Pathogenesis. In Molecular Medical Microbiology; Elsevier, 2024; pp 325–336.

2. Li Y-Y, Cai R-J, Talbot EA, Wang YT. Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. In Molecular Medical Microbiology; Elsevier, 2024; pp 1569–1584.

3. Eallonardo SJ, Wang YT, Freitag NE. Listeria Monocytogenes. In Molecular Medical Microbiology; Elsevier, 2024; pp 1249–1267.