Overview
Background
Professor Di Yu is a Chair in Paediatric Immunotherapy, Professor of Immunology, Director of Ian Frazer Centre of Children's Immunotherapy Research, and Head of Systems and Translational T-cell Immunology Laboratory (STTIL) at the University of Queensland. He earned his PhD from the Australian National University in 2007 and postdoctoral training at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research from 2008-2010. Before joining the University of Queensland, he was a faculty member at Monash University from 2011-2016 and at the Australian National University ANU from 2017-2019. His research focuses on exploring T cell subsets and developing new therapies to regulate their functions in clinical settings, with the goal of treating autoimmune diseases and cancer. He also leads the development and application of "systems immunology" techniques to evaluate individuals' immune status.
Professor Yu has authored over 100 publications of basic and translational research in immunology, including Nature, Nature Immunology, Nature Medicine, Immunity and Science Immunology, and is a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher. In recognising his groundbreaking research, he has been elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS) and honoured with accolades such as the 2023 Jacques Miller Medal from the Australian Academy of Science (AAS), the 2021 Jian Zhou Medal from the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS), and the inaugural 2021 AbbVie New Horizon Research Award from the Australia and New Zealand Society for Immunology (ASI), among others.
Availability
- Professor Di Yu is:
- Available for supervision
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, Australian National University
Research impacts
Professor Yu is the pioneer who characterised a major CD4+ helper T cell subset – follicular helper (TFH) cells, which supports and regulates B cells for antibody production, and follicular cytotoxic T (TFC) cells (also known as stem cell-like precursor exhausted T (TPEX) cells), the major CD8+ T cell subset that controls follicular infection and responds to PD-1/PD-L1 blockade immunotherapy. By revealing their novel functions and regulation, his findings have profoundly impacted vaccination design and the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune diseases, infection and cancer.
Professor Yu has discovered critical molecular mechanisms in controlling the differentiation and function of TFH cells, which include the master transcription factor Bcl6 (Immunity) and Roquin-mediated posttranscriptional regulation (Nature). He led the research to develop a method to monitor the activity of TFH cells in humans (Immunity) and understand IL-21 as the essential TFH effector cytokine (Immunity; Journal of Experimental Medicine; Science Immunology). More recently, he identified the metabolic hormone leptin as the physiological regulator of TFH cells that influences vaccine response in healthy populations (Nature communications). Furthermore, he discovered the specific cell death pathway – ferroptosis in the regulation of TFH cell survival and demonstrated that the mitigation of TFH cell death could boost vaccine response (Nature Immunology). He also discovered TFC cells as a new subset of CD8+ T cells that controls HIV infection in TFH cells and EBV infection in B cells (Nature Immunology). TFC cells also represent the essential population in CD8+ T cells that respond to immune checkpoint therapy blocking PD-1/PD-L1.
Professor Yu has established a broad collaboration network with clinicians. He co-led the first open-label (Nature Medicine) and subsequently randomised controlled clinical trial (Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases) for low-dose IL-2 therapy in lupus, showing its mechanisms of action of regulating TFH, TH17, and TREG cells. In addition, he co-led the clinical study showing that allergen immunotherapy improves defective follicular regulatory T cells in patients with allergic rhinitis (Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology). He recently co-led a team to develop VEGF antibodies linked to exosomes derived from TREG cells to choroidal neovascularization (Nature Biomedical Engineering).
Works
Search Professor Di Yu’s works on UQ eSpace
2024
Journal Article
Dysregulation in keratinocytes drives systemic lupus erythematosus onset
Tian, Jingru, Shi, Liqing, Zhang, Dingyao, Yao, Xu, Zhao, Ming, Kumari, Snehlata, Lu, Jun, Yu, Di and Lu, Qianjin (2024). Dysregulation in keratinocytes drives systemic lupus erythematosus onset. Cellular and Molecular Immunology, 1-14. doi: 10.1038/s41423-024-01240-z
2024
Journal Article
Granzyme K+CD8+ T cells interact with fibroblasts to promote neutrophilic inflammation in nasal polyps
Guo, Cui-Lian, Wang, Chong-Shu, Wang, Zhi-Chao, Liu, Fei-Fan, Liu, Lin, Yang, Yang, Li, Xia, Guo, Bei, Lu, Ruo-Yu, Liao, Bo, Liu, Jin-Xin, Wang, Hai, Song, Jia, Yao, Yin, Zhu, Li-Ping, Yu, Di and Liu, Zheng (2024). Granzyme K+CD8+ T cells interact with fibroblasts to promote neutrophilic inflammation in nasal polyps. Nature Communications, 15 (1) 10413. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-54685-1
2024
Journal Article
Dimethyl fumarate ameliorates chronic graft-versus-host disease by inhibiting Tfh differentiation via Nrf2
Lyu, Fulian, Gong, Huanle, Wu, Xiaojin, Liu, Xin, Lu, Yinghao, Wei, Xiya, Liu, Chenchen, Shen, Yaoyao, Wang, Yuhang, Lei, Lei, Chen, Jia, Ma, Shoubao, Sun, Hongjian, Yu, Di, Han, JingJing, Xu, Yang and Wu, Depei (2024). Dimethyl fumarate ameliorates chronic graft-versus-host disease by inhibiting Tfh differentiation via Nrf2. Leukemia. doi: 10.1038/s41375-024-02475-5
2024
Journal Article
Interferon disrupts immune and tissue homeostasis in SLE via CXCL13
Pazhouhandeh, Mehrdad and Yu, Di (2024). Interferon disrupts immune and tissue homeostasis in SLE via CXCL13. Nature Reviews Rheumatology, 20 (12), 745-746. doi: 10.1038/s41584-024-01164-y
2024
Journal Article
Author Correction: Selenium–GPX4 axis protects follicular helper T cells from ferroptosis
Yao, Yin, Chen, Zhian, Zhang, Hao, Chen, Cailing, Zeng, Ming, Yunis, Joseph, Wei, Yunbo, Wan, Yanmin, Wang, Naiqi, Zhou, Mingzhe, Qiu, Chao, Zeng, Qunxiong, Ong, Hong Sheng, Wang, Hao, Makota, Fadzai Victor, Yang, Yang, Yang, Zhaohui, Wang, Nan, Deng, Jun, Shen, Chao, Xia, Yan, Yuan, Lin, Lian, Zhaoqin, Deng, Yike, Guo, Cuilian, Huang, Ao, Zhou, Pengcheng, Shi, Haibo, Zhang, Weitian ... Yu, Di (2024). Author Correction: Selenium–GPX4 axis protects follicular helper T cells from ferroptosis. Nature Immunology, 25 (9), 1764-1764. doi: 10.1038/s41590-024-01949-z
2024
Journal Article
The activity of early-life gene regulatory elements is hijacked in aging through pervasive AP-1-linked chromatin opening
Patrick, Ralph, Naval-Sanchez, Marina, Deshpande, Nikita, Huang, Yifei, Zhang, Jingyu, Chen, Xiaoli, Yang, Ying, Tiwari, Kanupriya, Esmaeili, Mohammadhossein, Tran, Minh, Mohamed, Amin R., Wang, Binxu, Xia, Di, Ma, Jun, Bayliss, Jacqueline, Wong, Kahlia, Hun, Michael L., Sun, Xuan, Cao, Benjamin, Cottle, Denny L., Catterall, Tara, Barzilai-Tutsch, Hila, Troskie, Robin-Lee, Chen, Zhian, Wise, Andrea F., Saini, Sheetal, Soe, Ye Mon, Kumari, Snehlata, Sweet, Matthew J. ... Nefzger, Christian M. (2024). The activity of early-life gene regulatory elements is hijacked in aging through pervasive AP-1-linked chromatin opening. Cell Metabolism, 36 (8), 1858-1881.e23. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2024.06.006
2024
Journal Article
International consensus guidelines for the definition, detection, and interpretation of autophagy-dependent ferroptosis
Chen, Xin, Tsvetkov, Andrey S., Shen, Han-Ming, Isidoro, Ciro, Ktistakis, Nicholas T., Linkermann, Andreas, Koopman, Werner J. H., Simon, Hans-Uwe, Galluzzi, Lorenzo, Luo, Shouqing, Xu, Daqian, Gu, Wei, Peulen, Olivier, Cai, Qian, Rubinsztein, David C., Chi, Jen-Tsan, Zhang, Donna D., Li, Changfeng, Toyokuni, Shinya, Liu, Jinbao, Roh, Jong-Lyel, Dai, Enyong, Juhasz, Gabor, Liu, Wei, Zhang, Jianhua, Yang, Minghua, Liu, Jiao, Zhu, Ling-Qiang, Zou, Weiping ... Tang, Daolin (2024). International consensus guidelines for the definition, detection, and interpretation of autophagy-dependent ferroptosis. Autophagy, 20 (6), 1213-1246. doi: 10.1080/15548627.2024.2319901
2024
Journal Article
A Galectin-9–Driven CD11c <sup>high</sup> Decidual Macrophage Subset Suppresses Uterine Vascular Remodeling in Preeclampsia
Li, Yanhong, Sang, Yifei, Chang, Yunjian, Xu, Chunfang, Lin, Yikong, Zhang, Yao, Chiu, Philip C.N., Yeung, William S.B., Zhou, Haisheng, Dong, Ningzheng, Xu, Ling, Chen, Jiajia, Zhao, Weijie, Liu, Lu, Yu, Di, Zang, Xingxing, Ye, Jiangfeng, Yang, Jinying, Wu, Qingyu, Li, Dajin, Wu, Ligang and Du, Meirong (2024). A Galectin-9–Driven CD11c high Decidual Macrophage Subset Suppresses Uterine Vascular Remodeling in Preeclampsia. Circulation, 149 (21), 1670-1688. doi: 10.1161/circulationaha.123.064391
2023
Journal Article
Inhaled SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for single-dose dry powder aerosol immunization
Ye, Tong, Jiao, Zhouguang, Li, Xin, He, Zhanlong, Li, Yanyan, Yang, Fengmei, Zhao, Xin, Wang, Youchun, Huang, Weijin, Qin, Meng, Feng, Yingmei, Qiu, Yefeng, Yang, Wenhui, Hu, Lingfei, Hu, Yaling, Zhai, Yu, Wang, Erqiang, Yu, Di, Wang, Shuang, Yue, Hua, Wang, Yishu, Wang, Hengliang, Zhu, Li, Ma, Guanghui and Wei, Wei (2023). Inhaled SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for single-dose dry powder aerosol immunization. Nature, 624 (7992), 630-638. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06809-8
2023
Journal Article
Systemic immunometabolism and responses to vaccines: insights from T and B cell perspectives
Nettelfield, Sam, Yu, Di and Cañete, Pablo F (2023). Systemic immunometabolism and responses to vaccines: insights from T and B cell perspectives. International Immunology, 35 (12), 571-582. doi: 10.1093/intimm/dxad021
2023
Journal Article
Low-dose IL-2 treatment rescues cognitive deficits by repairing the imbalance between Treg and Th17 cells at the middle Alzheimer’s disease stage
Yuan, Lin, Xie, Lei, Zhang, Hao, Zhang, Yu, Wei, Yunbo, Feng, Jinhong, Cui, Li, Tian, Rui, Feng, Jia, Yu, Di and Lv, Cui (2023). Low-dose IL-2 treatment rescues cognitive deficits by repairing the imbalance between Treg and Th17 cells at the middle Alzheimer’s disease stage. Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology, 18 (4), 674-689. doi: 10.1007/s11481-023-10090-x
2023
Journal Article
Autoimmune uveitis in Behçet's disease and Vogt‐Koyanagi‐Harada disease differ in tissue immune infiltration and T cell clonality
Kang, Hao, Sun, Hongjian, Yang, Yang, Tuong, Zewen K., Shu, Minglei, Wei, Yunbo, Zhang, Yu, Yu, Di and Tao, Yong (2023). Autoimmune uveitis in Behçet's disease and Vogt‐Koyanagi‐Harada disease differ in tissue immune infiltration and T cell clonality. Clinical and Translational Immunology, 12 (9) e1461, 1-17. doi: 10.1002/cti2.1461
2023
Journal Article
Severe respiratory viral infections: T-cell functions diverging from immunity to inflammation
Yunis, Joseph, Short, Kirsty R. and Yu, Di (2023). Severe respiratory viral infections: T-cell functions diverging from immunity to inflammation. Trends in Microbiology, 31 (6), 644-656. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2022.12.008
2023
Journal Article
Attenuation of renal injury by depleting cDC1 and by repurposing Flt3 inhibitor in anti-GBM disease
Chen, Titi, Cao, Qi, Wang, Ruifeng, Zheng, Guoping, Azmi, Farhana, Lee, Vincent W., Wang, Yuan Ming, Li, Hongqi, Yu, Di, Rogers, Natasha M., Alexander, Stephen I., Harris, David C.H. and Wang, Yiping (2023). Attenuation of renal injury by depleting cDC1 and by repurposing Flt3 inhibitor in anti-GBM disease. Clinical Immunology, 250 109295, 1-14. doi: 10.1016/j.clim.2023.109295
2023
Journal Article
Heparan sulfate regulates IL-21 bioavailability and signal strength that control germinal center B cell selection and differentiation
Chen, Zhian, Cui, Yanfang, Yao, Yin, Liu, Bo, Yunis, Joseph, Gao, Xin, Wang, Naiqi, Cañete, Pablo F., Tuong, Zewen Kelvin, Sun, Hongjian, Wang, Hao, Yang, Siling, Wang, Runli, Leong, Yew Ann, Simon Davis, David, Qin, Jiahuan, Liang, Kaili, Deng, Jun, Wang, Conan K., Huang, Yen-Hua, Roco, Jonathan A., Nettelfield, Sam, Zhu, Huaming, Xu, Huajun, Yu, Zhijia, Craik, David, Liu, Zheng, Qi, Hai, Parish, Christopher and Yu, Di (2023). Heparan sulfate regulates IL-21 bioavailability and signal strength that control germinal center B cell selection and differentiation. Science immunology, 8 (80) eadd1728, 1-17. doi: 10.1126/sciimmunol.add1728
2023
Journal Article
T follicular helper 17 (Tfh17) cells are superior for immunological memory maintenance
Gao, Xin, Luo, Kaiming, Wang, Diya, Wei, Yunbo, Yao, Yin, Deng, Jun, Yang, Yang, Zeng, Qunxiong, Dong, Xiaoru, Xiong, Le, Gong, Dongcheng, Lin, Lin, Pohl, Kai, Liu, Shaoling, Liu, Yu, Liu, Lu, Nguyen, Thi HO, Allen, Lilith F., Kedzierska, Katherine, Jin, Yanliang, Du, Mei-Rong, Chen, Wanping, Lu, Liangjing, Shen, Nan, Liu, Zheng, Cockburn, Ian A., Luo, Wenjing and Yu, Di (2023). T follicular helper 17 (Tfh17) cells are superior for immunological memory maintenance. eLife, 12 e82217, 1-29. doi: 10.7554/elife.82217
2023
Journal Article
Dimensionality reduction under scrutiny
Yang, Yang, Tuong, Zewen K. and Yu, Di (2023). Dimensionality reduction under scrutiny. Nature Computational Science, 3 (1), 8-9. doi: 10.1038/s43588-022-00383-1
2022
Journal Article
Dendritic cell-derived IL-27 p28 regulates T cell program in pathogenicity and alleviates acute graft-versus-host disease
Gong, Huanle, Ma, Shoubao, Chen, Jia, Yang, Bingyu, Liu, Shuangzhu, Liu, Xin, Han, Jingjing, Wu, Xiaojin, Lei, Lei, Yin, Zhinan, Sun, Hongjian, Yu, Di, Liu, Haiyan, Xu, Yang and Wu, Depei (2022). Dendritic cell-derived IL-27 p28 regulates T cell program in pathogenicity and alleviates acute graft-versus-host disease. Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, 7 (1) 319, 1-12. doi: 10.1038/s41392-022-01147-z
2022
Journal Article
LncRNA IL21‐AS1 interacts with hnRNPU protein to promote IL21 overexpression and aberrant differentiation of Tfh cells in systemic lupus erythematosus
Liu, Limin, Hu, Longyuan, Long, Haojun, Zheng, Meiling, Hu, Zhi, He, Ye, Gao, Xiaofei, Du, Pei, Zhao, Hongjun, Yu, Di, Lu, Qianjin and Zhao, Ming (2022). LncRNA IL21‐AS1 interacts with hnRNPU protein to promote IL21 overexpression and aberrant differentiation of Tfh cells in systemic lupus erythematosus. Clinical and Translational Medicine, 12 (12) e1117, 1-21. doi: 10.1002/ctm2.1117
2022
Journal Article
Efficacy and Safety of Low-Dose Interleukin 2 for Primary Sjögren Syndrome: A Randomized Clinical Trial
He, Jing, Chen, Jiali, Miao, Miao, Zhang, Ruijun, Cheng, Gong, Wang, Yifan, Feng, Ruiling, Huang, Bo, Luan, Huijie, Jia, Yuan, Jin, Yuebo, Zhang, Xiaoying, Shao, Miao, Wang, Yu, Zhang, Xia, Li, Jing, Zhao, Xiaozhen, Wang, Han, Liu, Tian, Xiao, Xian, Zhang, Xuewu, Su, Yin, Mu, Rong, Ye, Hua, Li, Ru, Liu, Xu, Liu, Yanying, Li, Chun, Liu, Huixin ... Li, Zhanguo (2022). Efficacy and Safety of Low-Dose Interleukin 2 for Primary Sjögren Syndrome: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Network Open, 5 (11) e2241451, 1-16. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.41451
Funding
Current funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Professor Di Yu is:
- Available for supervision
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Supervision history
Current supervision
-
Doctor Philosophy
Ferroptosis: a novel layer of regulation for T cell homeostasis and function
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Kim Bridle, Dr Joseph Yunis, Dr Zhian Chen
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Doctor Philosophy
An integration of multi-omics and machine learning to stratify patients with lupus nephritis for precision medicine
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Yang Yang
-
Doctor Philosophy
Control of antibody selection by follicular helper T cells in vaccination and autoimmunity
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Zhian Chen
-
Doctor Philosophy
Investigate T cell specificity and function in immune responses by systems immunology
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Kelvin Tuong, Dr Yang Yang
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Doctor Philosophy
Temporal tracking of T cell functional differentiation by single-cell RNA-sequencing to inform immunotherapy
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Pablo Canete, Dr Yang Yang
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Doctor Philosophy
Ferroptosis-mediated regulation of lymphocyte homeostasis and function in the liver
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Darrell Crawford, Dr Xiaowen Liang
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Doctor Philosophy
Modelling T cell functional subsets
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Yang Yang
-
Doctor Philosophy
Understanding and controlling the age-stage of somatic cells
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Christian Nefzger
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Doctor Philosophy
mRNA-based T cell guided cancer vaccine to treat solid cancers.
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Joseph Yunis
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Doctor Philosophy
A Comprehensive Paediatric Immune Cell Atlas for Children's Immunotherapy Innovation
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Quan Nguyen, Dr Kelvin Tuong
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Doctor Philosophy
Urinary stem cells for diagnosis and characterisation of primary bone disorders
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Craig Munns
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Doctor Philosophy
Next-generation IL-2 mimics for immunotherapy
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor David Craik, Dr Conan Wang
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