On August 9th, Yang Meixiang research group from Institute of biomedical transformation of our university and Dong Zhongjun research group from Tsinghua University Institute for immunology published an achievement on a top magazine on immunology --Immunity. Yang Meixiang, a researcher from our university, is the joint first author of the paper. It is the first of its kind to reveal a new mechanism of NK cell function, that the hematopoietic cell specific SLAM family receptors are involved in the regulation of natural killer cell activation and tolerance.

The project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and by the national Ministry of science and technology. Chen Shasha, a grade 4 doctoral degree candidate from the Union Center for Life Sciences of Tsinghua University--Peking University, and Yang Meixiang, researcher of Jinan University Biomedical Research Institute, are first authors of the paper. Dong Zhongjun, doctoral degree candidate from Institute of immunology and School of medicine, Tsinghua University, and Tian Zhigang, professor of Life Sciences College of University of Science and Technology of China, are co-corresponding authors of the paper.  Zhang Lianfeng, researcher and associate professor Ma Yuanwu from Animal Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences also participated in the project.

Within a month, the two groups force again. On September 7th, Yang Meixiang, the first author, published a research paper in the Journal Nature’s series--Nature Communications, titled ‘cell development requires Tsc1-dependent research NK negative regulation of IL-15-triggered mTORC1 activation’. This study revealed a negative feedback regulation mechanism of NK cell growth. This is another important discovery in the field of NK cell growth regulation mechanism after the discovery of Dong Zhongjun’s research group on the positive feedback regulation of IL-15 expression by activating mTOR signaling to induce NK cell specific transcription factor E4BP4 on Journal of Experimental Medicine.

The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Dong Zhongjun was the corresponding author of this paper, and Yang Meixiang was the first author. Dr. Chang zai, Tsinghua University Laboratory Animal Center, professor Wang song from Wuhan Sports Institute and professor Tian Zhigang from University of Science and Technology of China took part in the study.

Yang Meixiang research group has been committed to the basic biological characteristics research of NK cells, and the description of the key molecular mechanisms of NK cell growth, differentiation and activation. These breakthrough research results will be helpful to the new strategies for the design and reversal of tumor-infiltrating NK cell tolerance, so as to better understand the mechanism of NK cell defects in the process of tumor occurrence and development, to further promote the development of biological therapy based on NK cells.

Immunity is one of the Cell's immunological sub journals. This journal publishes the most important scientific research progress of immunology. The latest JCR impact factor is 24, 082. “Immunity” ranks the first among the 140 kinds of immunology journals publishing original papers.

Paper link: http://www.cell.com/immunity/fulltext/S1074-7613(16)30286-2

Communications Nature is the Nature sub journal, the latest JCR impact factor is 11.329.

Paper link:http://www.cell.com/immunity/fulltext/S1074-7613(16)30286-2