Wuji Zhang: "Remaining open to opportunities, and being ready to seize them when they arise."

Wuji Zhang officially joined the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole recently. On this occasion, we took the opportunity to ask him a few questions to gain insights into his backgrounds, research interests, and visions for the future.

Can you introduce yourself?

I recently joined the HKU-Pasteur Research Pole as a Research Assistant Professor. I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of Melbourne, Australia, followed by my Honours, PhD and postdoctoral training in Professor Katherine Kedzierska’s laboratory at the University of Melbourne, at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity. My research focuses on adaptive immune responses, particularly CD8+ T cell responses to influenza viruses and SARS-CoV-2. As I establish my research group at HKU-Pasteur, I will continue investigating T cell responses to respiratory viruses.

What are your primary research interests?

My research focuses on respiratory viruses with pandemic potential, aiming to aid pandemic prevention by understanding T cell immunity. CD4+ and CD8+ T cells recognise viral epitopes presented as complexes of viral peptide and major histocompatibility complex (MHC, or human leukocyte antigen (HLA) in humans), making their response specificity and magnitude dependent on host MHC. A key objective of my work is to identify determinants of broad and robust epitope-specific T cell responses to inform rational vaccine design.

What are you looking forward to most as a Principal Investigator at HKU-Pasteur?

What I look forward to most is collaborating with virologists, epidemiologists, and data scientists at HKU. I am keen on investigating the interplay between T cell responses and viral evolution, and I believe these multidisciplinary collaborations will be crucial for this work.

What specific projects do you plan to initiate in your new role?

I will begin my work by looking into overall and epitope-specific T cell responses to respiratory viruses, with a particular focus on individuals with chronic diseases. My work will examine whether specific disease factors and clinical measures affect T cell activation and functionality. A key question is whether improved disease management can restore optimal T cell responses.

Specifically, what areas of Immunology do you find the most exciting and why?

I am most fascinated by T cell epitope recognition. In different individuals, viral proteins are processed and presented on MHC molecules differently, partially dependent on the MHC alleles they possess. For the three classical MHC-I molecules (HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C) recognized by CD8+ T cells, each individual expresses up to six alleles (two from each locus). This combinatorial diversity shapes the T cell repertoire activated upon virus encounter, demonstrating the exquisite specificity and adaptability of human antiviral immunity.

What are your top tips for students who wish to have a successful career in immunology?

What helps me most is staying passionate and proactive – actively engaging in meetings and events as well as remaining open to opportunities, and being ready to seize them when they arise.

Get to know more about Wuji Zhang here!