Qingsheng Li, Ph.D.

HIV Vaccine Development

Dr. Li’s HIV vaccine approach uses 12 HIV viral protease cleavage sites (PCS) as vaccine immunogens. PCS is essential for virus maturation, immunogenic and conserved among global HIV strains, making vaccine targeting 12 PCS immunogens potentially effective worldwide. Dr. Li is assessing the protective efficacy of a multi-epitope PCS (MEPCS)-mRNA-LNP vaccine. This research holds significant promise for developing a novel HIV vaccine to prevent HIV transmission.

HIV Latency and Cure

Studies have revealed the exciting promise of CRISPR/Cas genome editing to excise provirus for an HIV cure. However, a major barrier to their clinical application is how to deliver it to latently infected cells effectively and specifically in vivo. To close this gap, Dr. Li is developing a CD4-targeted lentivirus-like particle fusogenic resicle (LVLP-R) to deliver Cas12a protein/mRNA and multiplexed guide RNAs for excision of HIV proviruses and coreceptor CCR5. The completion of the studies will offer a novel tool to deliver genome editors to CD4 cells in vivo and may provide a new gene therapy approach to HIV and other T cell-related diseases.

Highly Multiplexed Protein and RNA In Situ Detection

Dr. Li’s team is highly experienced in detecting and measuring both HIV viral RNA and DNA, as well as host cell proteins and RNA markers directly within tissue samples. Dr. Li was the first to develop a novel technique which combines in situ tetramers and RNA in site hybridization (ISTH) to determine the in vivo ratio of virus specific CD8 cytotoxic effector T cells (E) to infected target cells (T). Dr. Li is also proficient in simultaneously performing highly multiplexed detection of proteins and RNA on a single tissue section.

Development and Utilization of In Vivo Animal Models

Dr. Li’s team has extensive experience in the development and application of in vivo animal models. Dr. Li pioneered the generation of a hu-BLT animal model capable of producing human microglial cells within the central nervous system (CNS), alongside a human immune system outside the CNS.