Yonghong Wan

, MD

Associate Professor
Pathology and Molecular Medicine

Division: Molecular Medicine

Cancer Division, Centre for Gene Therapeutics

McMaster University
5024 Michael DeGroote Centre for Learning & Discovery
905-525-9140 ext. 22461
wanyong@mcmaster.ca

Assistant: Michelle Allan

Currently accepting Graduate Students
Currently accepting Post-Doctoral Fellows

Education and Professional Standing

MD, Hubei Medical University (China) 1984

---

Interests

Research Focus

Our research involves dendritic cell immunobiology and cancer immunotherapy. The overall objective of our research program is to develop new immunotherapeutic approaches including cancer vaccines for the treatment of melanoma, breast cancer and brain tumors. Since tumors are derived from healthy tissues, the development of effective cancer vaccines has been complicated by mechanisms of “immune tolerance” that prevent the immune system from attacking self tissues. We have examined different cancer vaccination strategies and demonstrated that immune tolerance can be overcome by increasing the immunogenicity of target antigens or vaccine vectors leading to antitumor immunity. For instance, several gene-based tumor vaccines using adenovirus and/or dendritic cells as delivery systems are being explored in laboratory models and in human clinical trials. We are currently focusing on the understanding of the mechanisms that regulate the interactions between dendritic cells and effector cells such as T lymphocytes, NK and NKT cells, which will allow us to further improve dendritic cell-based vaccination therapy. We have also begun to explore the strategies combining cancer vaccine and oncolytic viral therapy to enhance overall therapeutic outcomes.

Another area of interest has been the study of relationship between antitumor immunity and autoimmunity. It has been a concern whether effective cancer vaccination against self tumor antigens will lead to normal tissue damage. In order to address that, we have developed several animal models which allow us to dissect the mechanisms underlying immune responses against tumor versus normal tissues.

Academic Interests

Dr. Wan currently teaches various courses in advanced immunology at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.  At the undergraduate level, he acts as course coordinator for Advanced Immunology (HTH SCI 4II3).  At the graduate level, Dr. Wan teaches Advanced Immunobiology I (MS715) and Vaccine Immunology (MS717).

---

Team Members

Post Doctoral Fellows

Byram Bridle, Jonathan Pol, Lan Chen

Research Scientist

Fuan Wang

Graduate Students

Dannie Bernard, Jeanette Boudreau, Liang Zhang

Selected Publications

• Bridle B, Stephenson K, Boudreau J, Koshy S, Kazdhan N, Brunellière J, Bramson J, Lichty B and Wan YH. Potentiating Cancer Immunotherapy using an Oncolytic Virus. Mol Ther., 2010 Jun 15. [Epub ahead of print]
• Bridle BW, Li J, Jiang S, Chang R, Lichty BD, Bramson JL and Wan YH. Immunotherapy can reject intracranial tumor cells without damaging the brain despite sharing the target antigen.  J Immunol., 2010; 184:4269-75.  
• Bernard D, Ventresca MS, Marshall LA, Evelegh C, Wan YH and Bramson JL.  Processing of tumor antigen differentially impacts the development of helper and effector CD4+ T cell responses. Mol Ther., 2010; 18:1224-32.
• Lei Z, Li B, Lichty B, Li D, Zhang G, Feng Z, Wan YH and Huang B. Autophagy facilitates major histocompatibility complex class I expression induced by IFN-γ in B16 melanoma cells. Cancer Immunol Immunother., 2009 Aug 13. [Epub ahead of print]
• Bridle BW, Boudreau JE, Lichty BD, Brunellière J, Stephenson K, Koshy S, Bramson JL, Wan YH. Vesicular stomatitis virus as a novel cancer vaccine vector to prime antitumor immunity amenable to rapid boosting with adenovirus. Mol Ther., 2009; 17:1814-21.
• Boudreau JE, Bridle BW, Stephenson KB, Brunélliere J, Bramson JL, Lichty BD and Wan YH. Transduction of dendritic cells with recombinant vesicular stomatitis viral vector enhances their ability to activate both innate and adaptive antitumor immunity. Mol Ther., 2009; 17:1465-72.
• Grinshtein N, Bridle BW, Wan YH and Bramson JL. Neo-adjuvant vaccination provides superior protection against tumor relapse following surgery compared to adjuvant vaccination Cancer Res., 2009; 69:3979–85.
• Zhang S, Bernard D, Khan WI, Kaplan MH, Bramson J and Wan YH. CD4 + T cell-mediated anti-tumor immunity can be uncoupled from auto-immunity via the STAT-4/STAT-6 signaling axis. Eur J Immunol., 2009; 39:1252-9.
• Tan X and Wan YH. Enhanced protein expression by IRES-driven mRNA translation as a novel approach for in vitro loading of dendritic cells with antigens. Hum Immunol., 2008; 69:32-40.
• Karimi K, Boudreau J, Fraser K, Liu H, Delanghe J, Gauldie J, Xing Z, Bramson J, and Wan YH. Enhanced antitumor immunity elicited by dendritic cell vaccines is a result of their ability to engage both CTL and IFN-gamma-producing NK cells. Mol Ther., 2008; 16:411-418.
• Kianizad K, Marshall LA, Grinshtein N, Margl R, Zheng S, Beermann R, Wan YH, and Bramson J. Elevated frequencies of self-reactive CD8+ T cells following immunization with a xenoantigen is due to the presence of a heteroclitic CD4+ T cell epitope. Cancer Res., 2007; 67:6459-6467.
• Luketic L, Delanghe J, Sobol PT, Yang P, Frotten E, Mossman KL, Bramson J, and Wan YH. Antigen presentation by exosomes released from peptide-pulsed dendritic cells is not suppressed by the presence of active CTL. J Immunol., 2007; 179:5024-5032.
• Leitch J, Fraser K, Lane C, Putzu K, Adema GJ, Zhang QJ, Jefferies WA, Bramson JL, and Wan YH. CTL-dependent and -independent antitumor immunity is determined by the tumor not the vaccine. J. Immunol., 2004; 172:5200-5205.
• Lane C, Leitch J, Tan XH, Hadjati J, Bramson JL, and Wan YH. Vaccination-induced autoimmune vitiligo is a consequence of secondary trauma to the skin. Cancer Res., 2004; 64:1509-1514.