Biography
Qiao Li, Ph.D. is a faculty member in the Section of General Surgery in the Surgery Department. Dr. Li received his bachelor's degree from Wuhan University in Wuhan, China and a master's degree from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in Immunology and Biological Sciences from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Dr. Li completed his postgraduate training in Molecular Biology and Cell Biology from the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He was an Assistant Professor of Biology at Wuhan University from 1985 through 1989. Dr. Li joined the faculty at the University of Michigan in 1997.
Dr. Li's research focuses on the generation of tumor-reactive T cells and B cells for the adoptive immunotherapy of cancer. To sensitize/induce tumor-reactive T cells and B cells in vivo, lymph node cells are primed utilizing as vaccines the genetically modified tumor cells, tumor cells admixed with bacterial adjutants, or antigen/antigen presenting cells. In order to optimize the methods that are capable of expanding lymphoid cells in vitro while maintaining or augmenting their antitumor reactivity, Dr. Li's research effort centers on developing new strategies for T and B cell activation/expansion using monoclonal antibodies and recombinant cytokines, as well as other T cell and/or B cell stimuli. Dr. Li's research effort is also devoted to the identification and characterization of tumor-specific T cell and B cell subsets. This issue is addressed by defining the specific antitumor reactivity of CD4+ cells or CD8+ cells, differentiating Th1/Tc1 versus Th2/Tc2 cytokine responses, studying molecules markers on T or B cells by T cell or B cell subsets. In addition, cancer stem cell model represents a new paradigm for the development of cancer immunotherapy. Conventional cytotoxic chemotherapy and immunologic approaches may kill most of the non-tumorigenic cells in a tumor, but cancer stem cells survive due to their relative high resistance to drugs or non-responsiveness to immunotherapy. Dr. Li's current research approaches involving development of novel therapeutic approaches by immunologically targeting cancer stem cells or by isolating and characterizing tumor associated antigens represent new directions taken in the laboratory.
Dr. Li is a member of the Cancer Hematopoiesis and Immunology Program of the Rogel Cancer Center at the University of Michigan. His research to develop innovative cancer treatment approaches through T, B cell adoptive immunotherapy and cancer stem cell-targeted vaccination is clinically relevant.