Staff profile

Professor Weisan Chen

Professor of Immunology, NHMRC Senior Research Fellow

Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering

School of Molecular Sciences
Department of Biochemistry
La Trobe Institute for Molecular Science

Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Brief profile

Dr Chen was awarded an NHMRC Visiting Postgraduate Scholarship for Higher Degree in 1989. After acquiring his PhD in Immunology at the Flinders University of Adelaide, Australia, He was awarded with a CJ Martin fellowship from NHMRC and took a postdoctoral position at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Maryland, USA in the laboratory of Drs Yewdell and Bennink. At the NIH, Dr Chen continued his studies on the mechanisms of antigen processing/presentation, immunodominance and CD8+ T cell epitope selection. During this time, Dr Chen discovered the 11th influenza A virus gene product. He returned to Australia in 2001 to establish his independent T cell Laboratory at the Ludwig Institute, Melbourne and was soon awarded with a Wellcome senior international research fellowship from Wellcome Trust, UK. In this position he expanded his research to include translational tumor immunology and cancer vaccine. Dr Chen’s lab is currently focusing on the initiation and maintenance of anti-tumor and anti-viral T cell response in murine models; antigen cross-presentation, immunodominance and regulatory T cells and their function in anti-tumor immunity in humans. Dr Chen’s lab is also actively involved in CD8+ T cell epitope discovery for anti-influenza immunity in humans.

Dr Chen has been a member of NHMRC and Cancer council grant review panels, a frequent reviewer for 20 international journals and many international funding agencies. He has published more than 65 research articles with an average citation 40 times, average impact factor 7.4 with an H index of 29. Dr Chen is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and currently serves as CId on the NHMRC influenza program led by Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty.

Dr Chen recently relocated his T cell lab to LIMS to take up a position as Professor of Immunology.

Research interests

T cell immunology

- Immunoproteasome and lymphocyte development and function

- Mechanisms associated with cross-priming

- T cell epitope discovery

Recent publications

View Weisan Chen's publications on ResearcherID.

2010 - 2012

Flt3 ligand expands CD4(+) FoxP3(+) regulatory T cells in human subjects. Klein O, Ebert LM, Zanker D, Woods K, Tan BS, Fucikova J, Behren A, Davis ID, Maraskovsky E, Chen W, Cebon J. Eur J Immunol. 2012 Nov 2   A Cancer Vaccine Induces Expansion of NY-ESO-1-Specific Regulatory T Cells in Patients with Advanced Melanoma. Ebert LM, Macraild SE, Zanker D, Davis ID, Cebon J, Chen W. PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e48424.   An optimized method for establishing high purity murine CD8(+) T cell cultures. Zanker D, Xiao K, Oveissi S, Guillaume P, Luescher IF, Chen W. J Immunol Methods. 2012 Oct 22.   A novel HLA-B18 restricted CD8+ T cell epitope is efficiently cross-presented by dendritic cells from soluble tumor antigen. Zhao RY, Mifsud NA, Xiao K, Chan KF, Oveissi S, Jackson HM, Dimopoulos N, Guillaume P, Knights AJ, Lowen T, Robson NC, Russell SE, Scotet E, Davis ID, Maraskovsky E, Cebon J, Luescher IF, Chen W. PLoS One. 2012;7(9):e44707.   Increased Circulating Th22 and Th17 Cells are Associated with Tumor Progression and Patient Survival in Human Gastric Cancer. Liu T, Peng L, Yu P, Zhao Y, Shi Y, Mao X, Chen W, Cheng P, Wang T, Chen N, Zhang J, Liu X, Li N, Guo G, Tong W, Zhuang Y, Zou Q. J Clin Immunol. 2012 Jul 4   CD8(+) T cells that produce interleukin-17 regulate myeloid-derived suppressor cells and are associated with survival time of patients with gastric cancer. Zhuang Y, Peng LS, Zhao YL, Shi Y, Mao XH, Chen W, Pang KC, Liu XF, Liu T, Zhang JY, Zeng H, Liu KY, Guo G, Tong WD, Shi Y, Tang B, Li N, Yu S, Luo P, Zhang WJ, Lu DS, Yu PW, Zou QM. Gastroenterology. 2012 Oct;143(4):951-962.e8.   Characterization of lymphomas developing in immunodeficient mice implanted with primary human non-small cell lung cancer. John T, Yanagawa N, Kohler D, Craddock KJ, Bandarchi-Chamkhaleh B, Pintilie M, Sykes J, To C, Li M, Panchal D, Chen W, Shepherd FA, Tsao MS. J Thorac Oncol. 2012 Jul;7(7):1101-8.   Increased intratumoral IL-22-producing CD4(+) T cells and Th22 cells correlate with gastric cancer progression and predict poor patient survival. Zhuang Y, Peng LS, Zhao YL, Shi Y, Mao XH, Guo G, Chen W, Liu XF, Zhang JY, Liu T, Luo P, Yu PW, Zou QM. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2012 Nov;61(11):1965-75.   FOXP3 is not mutated in human melanoma. Tan B, Behren A, Anaka M, Vella L, Cebon J, Mariadason JM, Chen W. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res. 2012 May;25(3):398-400.   A novel method for detecting antigen-specific human regulatory T cells. Ebert LM, MacRaild SE, Davis ID, Cebon J, Chen W. J Immunol Methods. 2012 Mar 30;377(1-2):56-61.   NLRC4 inflammasomes in dendritic cells regulate noncognate effector function by memory CD8⁺ T cells. Kupz A, Guarda G, Gebhardt T, Sander LE, Short KR, Diavatopoulos DA, Wijburg OL, Cao H, Waithman JC, Chen W, Fernandez-Ruiz D, Whitney PG, Heath WR, Curtiss R 3rd, Tschopp J, Strugnell RA, Bedoui S. Nat Immunol. 2012 Jan 8;13(2):162-9.   Immunoediting and persistence of antigen-specific immunity in patients who have previously been vaccinated with NY-ESO-1 protein formulated in ISCOMATRIX™. Nicholaou T, Chen W, Davis ID, Jackson HM, Dimopoulos N, Barrow C, Browning J, Macgregor D, Williams D, Hopkins W, Maraskovsky E, Venhaus R, Pan L, Hoffman EW, Old LJ, Cebon J. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2011 Nov;60(11):1625-37. doi: 10.1007/s00262-011-1041-3.   Melanoma vaccines: developments over the past 10 years. Klein O, Schmidt C, Knights A, Davis ID, Chen W, Cebon J. Expert Rev Vaccines. 2011 Jun;10(6):853-73.   Systematic identification of immunodominant CD8+ T-cell responses to influenza A virus in HLA-A2 individuals. Wu C, Zanker D, Valkenburg S, Tan B, Kedzierska K, Zou QM, Doherty PC, Chen W. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 May 31;108(22):9178-83.   Antigen-specific T-cell responses to a recombinant fowlpox virus are dependent on MyD88 and interleukin-18 and independent of Toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7)- and TLR9-mediated innate immune recognition. Lousberg EL, Diener KR, Fraser CK, Phipps S, Foster PS, Chen W, Uematsu S, Akira S, Robertson SA, Brown MP, Hayball JD. J Virol. 2011 Apr;85(7):3385-96.   Influenza A infection enhances cross-priming of CD8+ T cells to cell-associated antigens in a TLR7- and type I IFN-dependent fashion. Wei J, Waithman J, Lata R, Mifsud NA, Cebon J, Kay T, Smyth MJ, Sadler AJ, Chen W. J Immunol. 2010 Nov 15;185(10):6013-22.   Evaluation of cellular immune responses in cancer vaccine recipients: lessons from NY-ESO-1. Cebon J, Knights A, Ebert L, Jackson H, Chen W. Expert Rev Vaccines. 2010 Jun;9(6):617-29.   Processing and cross-presentation of individual HLA-A, -B, or -C epitopes from NY-ESO-1 or an HLA-A epitope for Melan-A differ according to the mode of antigen delivery. Robson NC, McAlpine T, Knights AJ, Schnurr M, Shin A, Chen W, Maraskovsky E, Cebon J. Blood. 2010 Jul 15;116(2):218-25.   Compartmentalized MHC class I antigen processing enhances immunosurveillance by circumventing the law of mass action. Lev A, Princiotta MF, Zanker D, Takeda K, Gibbs JS, Kumagai C, Waffarn E, Dolan BP, Burgevin A, Van Endert P, Chen W, Bennink JR, Yewdell JW. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Apr 13;107(15):6964-9.   Unexpected role for the immunoproteasome subunit LMP2 in antiviral humoral and innate immune responses. Hensley SE, Zanker D, Dolan BP, David A, Hickman HD, Embry AC, Skon CN, Grebe KM, Griffin TA, Chen W, Bennink JR, Yewdell JW. J Immunol. 2010 Apr 15;184(8):4115-22.   Direct antigen presentation by DC shapes the functional CD8(+) T-cell repertoire against the nuclear self-antigen La-SSB. Keech CL, Pang KC, McCluskey J, Chen W. Eur J Immunol. 2010 Feb;40(2):330-8.   Telomerase in cancer immunotherapy. Liu JP, Chen W, Schwarer AP, Li H. Biochim Biophys Acta. 2010 Jan;1805(1):35-42.

Older publications

(selected):

Ken C. Pang, Megan T. Sanders, John J. Monaco, Peter C. Doherty, Stephen J. Turner, Weisan Chen. (2006) Immunoproteasome subunit deficiencies impact differentially upon two immunodominant influenza virus specific CD8+ T cell responses. J. Immunol. 177: 7680-7688. IF=5.646 (18)

Heather Jackson, Nektaria Dimopoulos, Nicole A Mifsud, Tsin Yee Tai, Qiyuan Chen, Suzanne Svobodova, Judy Browning, Immanuel Luescher, Lisa Stocket, Lloyd J. Old, Ian D Davis, Jonathan Cebon, Weisan Chen (2006). Striking immunodominance hierarchy of naturally-occurring CD8+ and CD4+ T cell responses to NY-ESO-1. J. Immunol. 176:5908-5917. IF=5.646 (16)

Pang, K; Wei, J and Chen, W (2006). Dynamic quantification of MHC class I–peptide presentation to CD8+ T cells via intracellular cytokine staining. J. Immunol. Meth. 311:12-18. IF=2.347 (2)

Ian D. Davis, Qiyuan Chen, Leone Morris, Juliet Quirk, Maureen Stanley, Maria L. Tavarnesi, Phillip Parente, Tina Cavicchiolo, Wendie Hopkins, Heather Jackson, Nektaria Dimopoulos, Tsin Yee Tai, Duncan MacGregor, Judy Browning, Suzanne Svobodova, Dania Caron, Eugene Maraskovsky, Lloyd J. Old, Weisan Chen, Jonathan Cebon (2006). Blood dendritic cells generated with Flt3 ligand and CD40 ligand prime CD8+ T cells efficiently in cancer patients. J Immunother 29:449-511. IF=4.837 (40)

La Gruta NL, Kedzierska K, Pang KC, Webby R, Davenport M, Chen W, Turner SJ, Doherty PC. (2006). A virus specific CD8+ T cell immunodominance hierarchy determined by precursor frequencies and antigen dose. PNAS 103(4):994-999. IF=9.432 (75)

Andrew I. Webb, Michelle A. Dunstone, Marie-Isabel Aguilar, Nicholas A. Williamson, Jason Price, Andrea de Kauwe, Weisan Chen, Aaron Oakley, Patrick, Perlmutter, James McCluskey, Jamie Rossjohn and Anthony W. Purcell (2005). T cell determinants incorporating β-amino acid residues are protease resistant, immunogenic and elicit anti-tumor CTL in vivo. J. Immunol. 175: 3810–3818. IF=6.068 (26)

Ken C. Pang, Stuart Stephen, Pär G. Engström, Khairina Tajul-Arifin, Weisan Chen,Claes Wahlestedt, Boris Lenhard,Yoshihide Hayashizaki, and John S. Mattick. (2005) RNAdb – a comprehensive mammalian noncoding RNA database Nucleic Acids Research, 33, D125-130. IF=6.954 (76)

Max Schnurr, Qiyuan Chen, Amanda Shin, Weisan Chen, Tracey Toy, Corinna Jenderek, Simon Green, Lena Miloradovic, Debbie Drane, Ian D. Davis, Eugene Maraskovsky and Jonathan Cebon. (2005) Tumor antigen processing and presentation depend critically on dendritic cell type and the mode of antigen delivery.Blood 105:2465-2472. IF=10.555 (93)

Mark Shackleton, Ian D. Davis, Wendie Hopkins, Heather Jackson, Nektaria Dimopoulos, Tsin Tai, Qiyuan Chen, Phillip Parente, Michael Jefford, Kelly-Anne Masterman, Dania Caron, Weisan Chen, Eugene Maraskovsky, and Jonathan Cebon. (2004) The impact of imiquimod, a Toll-like receptor-7 ligand (TLR7L), on the immunogenicity of melanoma peptide vaccination with adjuvant Flt3 ligand. Cancer Immunity 4:9. [65]

Heather Jackson, Nektaria Dimopoulos, Qiyuan Chen, Tina Luke, Tsin Yee Tai, Eugene Maraskovsky, Lloyd Old, Ian Davis, Jonathan Cebon, Weisan Chen.(2004)  A robust human T cell culture method suitable for expanding tumour specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cells to known and unknown epitopes. J Immunol Meth 291:51-62. IF=2.347 (13)

Weisan Chen, Ken Pang, Kelly-Anne Masterman, Gina Kennedy, Sameh Basta, Nektaria Dimopoulos, Felicita Hornung, Mark Smyth, Jack R. Bennink, and Jonathan W. Yewdell. (2004) Reversal in the Immunodominance Hierarchy in Secondary CD8+ T Cell Responses to Influenza A Virus: Roles for Cross-Presentation and Lysis-Independent Immunodomination. J. Immunol. 173:5021-5027. IF=5.646 (44)

Davis ID*, Chen W*, Jackson H, Parente P, Shackleton M, Hopkins W, Chen Q, Dimopoulos N, Luke T, Murphy R, Scott AM, Maraskovsky E, McArthur G, MacGregor D, Sturrock S, Tai TY, Green S, Cuthbertson A, Maher D, Miloradovic L, Mitchell SV, Ritter G, Jungbluth AA, Chen YT, Gnjatic S, Hoffman EW, Old LJ, Cebon JS. (2004) Recombinant NY-ESO-1 protein with ISCOMATRIX adjuvant induces broad integrated antibody and CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cell responses in humans.PNAS 101:10607~10702. IF=9.432 (200) *Sharing first authorship indicated in the paper

Qiyuan Chen, Heather Jackson, Philip Parente, Tina Luke, Mark Rizkalla, Tsin Yee Tai, He-Cheng Zhu, Nicole Mifsud, Nektaria Dimopoulos, Kelly-Ann Masterman, Wendie Hopkins, Heather Goldie, Eugene Maraskovsky, Simon Green, Lena Miloradovic, James McCluskey, Lloyd Old, Ian Davis, Jonathan Cebon, Weisan Chen. (2004)  Immunodominant CD4+ responses identified in a patient vaccinated with full-length NY-ESO-1 formulated with ISCOMATRIX adjuvant. PNAS 101:9363~9368. IF=9.432 (47)

Karin A. Sedelies, Thomas J. Sayer, Kirsten M. Edwards, Weisan Chen, Daniel G. Pellici, Dale I. Godfrey and Joseph A. Trapani . (2004) Discordant regulation of granzyme H and granzyme B expression in human lymphocytes. JBC 279:26581-26587. IF=5.328 (33)

Andrew I. Webb, Michelle A. Dunstone, Weisan Chen, Marie-Isabel Aguilar,Qiyuan Chen, Heather Jackson,Linus Chang, Lars Kjer-Nielsen, Travis Beddoe, James McCluskey, Jamie Rossjohn and Anthony W. Purcell. (2004) Functional and structural characteristics of NY-ESO-1 related HLA-A2 restricted epitopes and the design of a novel immunogenic analogue. JBC 279(22):23438-23446. IF=5.328 (30)

Eugene Maraskovsky, Sigrid Sjolander, Debbie P. Drane, Thuy T. T. Le, Luis Mateo, Thomas Luft, Kelly-Anne Masterman, Tsin-Yee Tai, Susan Svobodova, Qiyuan Chen, Simon Green, Anders Sjolander, Martin J. Pearse, Lloyd J. Old, Francois A. Lemmonier, Weisan Chen, Jonathan Cebon, Andreas Suhrbier. (2004) NY-ESO-1 protein formulated in ISCOM® is a potent anti-cancer vaccine which induces both humoral and CTL-mediate immunity and results in the eradication of NY-ESO-1+ tumours in mice. Clinical Cancer Research. 10, 2879–2890. IF=6.747 (47)

Weisan Chen, Kelly-Anne Masterman, Sameh Basta, Nektaria Dimopoulos, Barbara Knowles, Jack R. Bennink, and Jonathan W. Yewdell. (2004) Cross-Priming of CD8 + T Cells by Viral and Tumor Antigens is a Robust Phenomenon. European J Immunology. 34:194-199. IF=5.179 (50)

Jefford M, Schnurr M, Toy T, Masterman KA, Shin A, Beecroft T, Tai TY, Shortman K, Shackleton M, Davis ID, Parente P, Luft T, Chen W, Cebon J, Maraskovsky E. (2003) Functional comparison of DC generated in vivo with Flt3 ligand or in vitro from blood monocytes: Differential regulation of function by specific classes of physiologic stimuli. Blood. 102:1753-1763. IF=10.555 (62)

Gnjatic S, Jager E, Chen W, Altorki NK, Matsuo M, Lee SY, Chen Q, Nagata Y, Atanackovic D, Chen YT, Ritter G, Cebon J, Knuth A, Old LJ. (2002) CD8(+) T cell responses against a dominant cryptic HLA-A2 epitope after NY-ESO-1 peptide immunization of cancer patients. PNAS 99:11813-11818. IF=9.432 (61)

Weisan Chen, Jack R. Bennink, Phillip A. Morton, Jonathan W. Yewdell. (2002)  Mice Deficient in Perforin, CD4+ T Cells, or CD28-Mediated Signalling Maintain the Immunodominance Hierarchy of CD8+ T Cell Responses to Influenza Virus. J. Virol. 76(20):10332-10337. IF=5.15 (37)

Basta S, Chen W, Bennink JR, Yewdell JW. (2002) Inhibitory effects of cytomegalovirus proteins US2 and US11 point to contributions from direct priming and cross-priming in induction of vaccinia virus-specific CD8(+) T cells. J. Immunol. 168:5403-5408. IF=5.646 (40)

Weisan Chen*, Paul A. Calvo*, Daniela Malide, James Gibbs, Ulrich Schubert, Igor Bacik, Sameh Basta, Robert O’neill, Jeanne Schickli, Peter Palese, Peter Henklein, Jack R. Bennink & Jonathan W. Yewdell. (2001) A Novel Influenza A Virus Mitochondrial Protein That Induces Cell Death. Nature Medicine 7:1306-1312. IF=27.136 (365) *Sharing first authorship was indicated in the paper.

Weisan Chen, Christopher C. Norbury, Yunjung Cho, Jonathan W. Yewdell, and Jack R. Bennink.  (2001) Immunoproteasomes Shape Immunodominance Hierarchies of Antiviral CD8+ T Cells at the Levels of T Cell Repertoire and Presentation of Viral Antigens. J. Exp. Med. 193: 1319-1326. IF=14.505 (93)

Shiv A. Prasad, Christopher C. Norbury, Weisan Chen, Jack R. Bennink and Jonathan W. Yewdell. (2001) Recombinant Adenoviruses Induce CD8+ T Cell Responses to an Inserted Protein Whose Expression is Limited to Non-Immune Cells. J. Immunol. (cutting edge) 166:4809-4812. IF=5.646 (40)

Michael F. Princiotta, Ulrich Schubert , Weisan Chen, Jack R. Bennink Jayhyuk Myung , Craig M. Crews , and Jonathan W. Yewdell (2001) Cells adapted to the proteasome inhibitor 4-hydroxy-5-iodo-3-nitrophenylacetyl-Leu-Leu-leucinal-vinyl sulfone require enzymatically active proteasomes for continued survival. PNAS. 98(2):513-518. IF=9.432 (57)

Chen, W, Luis C. Antón, Jack R. Bennink, Jonathan W. Yewdell. (2000) Dissecting the Multi-Factorial Causes of Immunodominance in Class I Restricted T Cell Responses to Viruses. Immunity. 12:83–93. IF=20.589 (199)

Chen, W; Jonathan W. Yewdell, Rodney L. Levine and Jack R. Bennink (1999) Modification of Cysteine Residues In Vitro and In Vivo Affects the Immunogenicity and Antigenicity of MHC Class I-Restricted Viral Determinants. J. Exp. Med. 189: 1757-1764. IF=14.505 (64)

Purcell, AW; Chen, W*; Ede, NJ; Gorman, JJ; Fecondo, JV; Jackson, DC; Zhao, Y and McCluskey, J. (1998) Avoidance of Self-Reactivity Results in Skewed CTL Responses to Rare Components of Synthetic Immunogens. J. Immunol. 160: 1085-1090. IF=5.646 (23) *Sharing first authorship with Purcell, AW was indicated in the paper.

Bacík, I; Snyder, HL; Antón, LC; Russ, G; Chen, W; Bennink, JR; Urge, L; Otvos, L; Dudkowska, B; Eisenlohr, L and Yewdell, JW. (1997) Introduction of a Glycosylation Site into a Secreted Protein Provides Evidence for an Alternative Antigen Processing Pathway: Transport of Precursors of Major Histocompatability Complex Class I-Restricted Peptides from the Endoplasmic Reticulum to the Cytosol. J. Exp. Med. 186: 479-487. IF=14.505 (60)

Chen, W, Ede, N.J., Jackson, D.C, McCluskey, J. and Purcell, A.W. (1996); CTL Recognition of an Altered Self-Peptide Associated with Asparagine Bond Rearrangement: Implications for Vaccine Design and Autoimmunity. J. Immunol. 157:1000-1005. IF=5.646 (37)

Chen, W. Khilko, S; Fecondo, J; Margulies, D. H. and McCluskey, J. (1994) Determinant selection of MHC class I-restricted antigenic peptides is explained by class I-peptide affinity and is strongly influenced by non-dominant anchor residues. J. Exp. Med. 180: 1471-1483. IF=14.505 (184)

Chen, W., McCluskey, J., Rodda, S. and Carbone, F.R. (1993) Changes at peptide residues buried in the MHC class I binding cleft influence T cell recognition: A possible role for indirect conformational alterations in the MHC class I or bound peptide in determining T cell recognition. J. Exp. Med. 177: 869-873. IF=14.505 (73)

Chen, W., Carbone, F.R. and McCluskey, J. (1993) Electroporation and commercial liposomes efficiently deliver soluble protein into the MHC class I presentation pathway. Priming for in vitro and in vivo for class I-restricted recognition of soluble antigen. J. Immunol. Meth. 160: 49-57. IF=2.347 (44)