Emory University School of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
Department of Microbiology and Immunology

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Department of Microbiology and Immunology

Li Lab Publications

The Li Lab is part of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology

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  1. Cody Elkins, Chengyu Ye, Pulavendran Sivasami, Roy Mulpur, Pamela P Diaz-Saldana, Amy Peng, Miaoer Xu, Yeun-Po Chiang, Samara Moll, Dormarie E Rivera-Rodriguez, Luisa Cervantes-Barragan, Tuoqi Wu, Byron B Au-Yeung, Christopher D Scharer, Mandy L Ford, Haydn Kissick, Chaoran Li. Obesity reshapes regulatory T cells in the visceral adipose tissue by disrupting cellular cholesterol homeostasis. Sci Immunol. Jan 10;10(103):eadl4909. (2025).
  2. Cody Elkins, Chaoran Li. Hidradenitis Suppurativa: TLSs take the center stage. Immunity. Dec 10;57(12):2712-2714. (2024).
  3. Cody Elkins, Chaoran Li. Deciphering visceral adipose tissue regulatory T cells: Key contributors to metabolic health. Immunol Rev. Apr 26;. doi: 10.1111/imr.13336. (2024).
  4. Pulavendran Sivasami, Cody Elkins, Pamela P. Diaz-Saldana, Kyndal Goss, Amy Peng, Michael Hamersky IV, Jennifer Bae, Miaoer Xu, Brian P. Pollack, Edwin M. Horwitz, Christopher D. Scharer, Lindsey Seldin, Chaoran Li. Obesity-induced dysregulation of skin-resident PPARγ+ Treg cells promotes IL-17A-mediated psoriatic inflammation. Immunity. Aug 8;56(8):1844-1861.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2023.06.021. (2023).
  5. Cody Elkins, Chaoran Li. Cytokine and metabolic regulation of adipose tissue Tregs. Immunometabolism. Nov 1;4(4):e00013. (2022).
  6. Chaoran Li#, Gang Wang, Pulavendran Sivasami, Ricardo N. Ramirez, Yanbo Zhang, Christophe Benoist, Diane Mathis#. (# corresponding author). Interferon-α-producing plasmacytoid dendritic cells drive the loss of adipose tissue regulatory T cells during obesity. Cell Metab. Jul 8;. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2021.06.007. (2021).
  7. Chaoran Li*, Andrés R Muñoz-Rojas*, Gang Wang, Alexander O Mann, Christophe Benoist, Diane Mathis. (* equal contribution). PPARγ marks splenic precursors of multiple nonlymphoid-tissue Treg compartments. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. Mar 30;118(13). (2021).
  8. Pulavendran Sivasami, Chaoran Li#. (# corresponding author). Derivation and Differentiation of Adipose-Tissue Regulatory T Cells: A Stepwise, Multi-Site Process. Front Immunol. Oct 29;11:599277. (2020).
  9. Ricardo A Fernandes*, Chaoran Li*, Gang Wang, Xinbo Yang, Christina S Savvides, Caleb R Glassman, Shen Dong, Eric Luxenberg, Leah V Sibener, Michael E Birnbaum, Christophe Benoist, Diane Mathis, K Christopher Garcia. (* equal contribution). Discovery of surrogate agonists for visceral fat Treg cells that modulate metabolic indices in vivo. Elife. Aug 10;9. doi: 10.7554/eLife.58463. (2020).
  10. Chaoran Li*, Raul German Spallanzani*, and Diane Mathis. (* equal contribution). Visceral Adipose Tissue Tregs and the cells that nurture them. Immunol. Rev. May;295(1):114-125. (2020).
  11. Ajithkumar Vasanthakumar, David Chisanga, Jonas Blume, Renee Gloury, Kara Britt, Darren C. Henstridge, Yifan Zhan, Santiago Valle Torres, Sebastian Liene, Nicholas Collins, Enyuan Cao, Tom Sidwell, Chaoran Li, Raul German Spallanzani, Yang Liao, Paul A. Beavis, Thomas Gebhardt, Natalie Trevaskis, Stephen L. Nutt, Jeffrey D. Zajac, Rachel A. Davey, Mark A. Febbraio, Diane Mathis, Wei Shi & Axel Kallies. Sex-specific adipose tissue imprinting of regulatory T cells. Nature. Mar;579(7800): 581-585. (2020).
  12. Raul German Spallanzani, David Zemmour, Tianli Xiao, Teshika Jayewickreme, Chaoran Li, Paul J. Bryce, Christophe Benoist, and Diane Mathis. Distinct Immunocyte-Promoting and Adipocyte-generating Stromal Components Coordinate Adipose Tissue Immune and Metabolic Tenors. Sci Immunol. 4(35). (2019).
  13. Chaoran Li, Joanna R. DiSpirito, David Zemmour, Raul German Spallanzani, Wilson Kuswanto, Christophe Benoist, and Diane Mathis. TCR Transgenic Mice Reveal Stepwise, Multi-site Acquisition of the Distinctive Fat-Treg Phenotype. Cell. 174(2):285-299. (2018).
  14. Baojun Zhang, Si-Qi Liu, Chaoran Li, Erik Lykken, Shan Jiang, Elizabeth Wong, Zhihua Gong, Zhongfen Tao, Bo Zhu, Ying Wan, Qi-Jing Li. MicroRNA-23a Curbs Necrosis during Early T Cell Activation by Enforcing Intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species Equilibrium. Immunity. 44(3):568-81. (2016).
  15. Dmitriy Kolodin, Nicolas van Panhuys, Chaoran Li, Angela M. Magnuson, Daniela Cipolletta, Christine M. Miller, Amy Wagers, Ronald N. Germain, Christophe Benoist, Diane Mathis. Antigen- and Cytokine-Driven Accumulation of Regulatory T Cells in Visceral Adipose Tissue of Lean Mice. Cell Metab. 21(4):543-57. (2015).
  16. Chaoran Li*, Shan Jiang*, Si-Qi Liu, Erik Lykken, Lin-Tao Zhao, Jose Sevilla, Bo Zhu and Qi-Jing Li. (* equal contribution). MeCP2 enforces Foxp3 expression to promote natural regulatory T cells’ resilience to inflammation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 111(27):E2807-16. (2014).
  17. Si-Qi Liu, Shan Jiang, Chaoran Li, Baojun Zhang, Qi-Jing Li. miR-17-92 cluster targets Phosphatase and Tensin Homology and Ikaros Family Zinc Finger 4 to promote TH17-mediated inflammation. J. Biol. Chem. 289: 12446-12456. (2014).
  18. Shan Jiang*, Chaoran Li*, Gabrielle McRae, Erik Lykken, Jose Sevilla, Si-Qi Liu, Ying Wan & Qi-Jing Li. (* equal contribution). MeCP2 Reinforces STAT3 Signaling and the Generation of Effector CD4+ T Cells by Promoting miR-124–Mediated Suppression of SOCS5. Signal. 7, ra25 (2014). (Cover Article).
  19. Yun Zhang, Pengyuan Yang, Tao Sun, Dong Li, Xin Xu, Yaocheng Rui, Chaoran Li, Mengyang Chong, Toni Ibrahim, Laura Mercatali, Dino Amadori, Xincheng Lu, Dong Xie, Qi-Jing Li & Xiao-Fan Wang. miR-126 and miR-126* repress recruitment of mesenchymal stem cells and inflammatory monocytes to inhibit breast cancer metastasis. Nat Cell Biol. 15(3):284-94. (2013).
  20. Chaoran Li, Peter J.R. Ebert & Qi-Jing Li. T cell receptor (TCR) and transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) signaling converge on DNA (cytosine-5)-methyltransferase to control forkhead box protein 3 (foxp3) locus methylation and inducible regulatory T cell differentiation. J Biol Chem. 288(26):19127-392012. (2013).
  21. Shan Jiang*, Chaoran Li*, Virginie Olive, Erik Lykken, Feng Feng, Jose Sevilla, Ying wan, Lin He & Qi-Jing Li (* equal contribution). Molecular dissection of the miR-17-92 cluster's critical dual roles in promoting Th1 responses and preventing inducible Treg differentiation. Blood. Nov 17;118(20):5487-97. (2011).