Clinical Immunology

Program Overview

To improve the knowledge of immune cell dynamics in anti-pathogen and anti-tumor immunity and facilitate translational research in immunotherapy, the Clinical Immunology Core (CIC) at the CDI offers cutting-edge immunological services, supplies, advanced technologies, expert guidance, and collaborative support in immunological research to the HMH community. The Core works closely with Hackensack Meridian Health Biorepository (BioR) and Georgetown University Lombardi Cancer Center Shared Resources.

Clinical Immunology Core’s mission

The mission of CIC is to provide approaches toward understanding cellular, humoral, and innate immune responses in the context of tumor immunity, alloimmunity, autoimmunity, and infection immunity. Specifically, 

• To provide state-of-the art immunology services for translational study, including flow cytometry-based immunophenotyping and standard immunological function assays. 
• To support translational studies focusing on cellular immunotherapy, which encompasses the production and evaluation of CAR-T cells and TCR-T cells, as well as functional assays to assess their effectiveness. 
• To provide advanced gene-editing services of human immune cells, hematopoietic stem cells, and cell lines, employing techniques like CRISPR/Cas9-based gene-editing and gene engineering via lentiviral/retroviral methods.

Instrumentation and Services

Technical Services offered

• Guidance in experimental methodologies and design
• Assistance for grant proposals and scientific manuscripts
• Assay development to fit users’ research-specific needs
• Instrumentation and analysis software training
• CIC sample preparation: Cell stimulation and staining services could be performed by request.

Cytometry Equipment Available

• BD LSRFortessa flow cytometer analyzer configured for four LASER (405nm, 488nm, 561nm,640 nm), 16 color analysis (BD LSRFortessa specifications)
• BD FACSymphony A3 flow cytometer analyzer configured for five LASER (355nm, 405nm, 488nm, 561nm, 637nm), 28 color analysis (BD FACSymphony A3 specifications)
• TECAN microplate reader
• CTL ImmunoSpot Analyzer

Clinical Immunophenotyping and Function Assay Services

Key Staff/Faculty

Qingrong Huang, Ph.D.
Staff, Manager, CDI
Dr Huang graduated as Ph.D. in 2017 from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Shanghai, China, and did her postdoctoral training at Weill Cornell Medicine for 5 years, focusing on dendritic cells and their development and function in adaptive immunity and self-tolerance. She has over 12 years of academic research experience, focusing on alloimmunity, autoimmunity and tumor immunology. Qingrong Huang is available for assay development and general experimental consultations.
qingrong.huang@hmh-cdi.org

Yi Zhang, M.D., Ph.D.
Advisory committee member, Clinical Immunology Core
Member, CDI
Co-Program Leader of the Cancer Host Interactions Program, Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
Member - John Theurer Cancer Center
Research Expertise: Allo-immunity, tumor-immunity, epigenetic regulation of adaptive immune cells and targeting immunotherapies of GVHD and cancers.

Hai-Hui Xue, M.D., Ph.D.
Advisory committee member, Clinical Immunology Core
Member, CDI
Professor, Medical Sciences, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine
Research Expertise: Immunology of infectious diseases and tumors.

Binfeng Lu, Ph.D.
Advisory committee member, Clinical Immunology Core
Member, CDI
Professor, Medical Sciences, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine
Research Expertise: Tumor immunology, cancer immunotherapy, cytokine, and autoimmunity.