59678-Luo, Wei

Wei Luo, PhD

Assistant Professor of Microbiology & Immunology

Email
wl47@iu.edu
Phone
317-274-8042
Address
R2 302
MCIM
IN
Indianapolis, IN
PubMed:

Bio

Dr. Wei Luo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Luo's research program focuses on defining the molecular mechanisms that regulate B cell activation, germinal center (GC) dynamics, and antibody responses, with the goal of informing next-generation vaccines and therapies for infectious diseases, allergy, autoimmunity, and B cell malignancies. Dr. Luo has extensive experience studying signaling and metabolic pathways that control GC B cell function, effector differentiation, and malignant transformation. Dr. Luo also has strong training in virology including the use retroviral and lentiviral systems for genetic manipulation. Dr. Luo's research has uncovered how GC B cells reprogram signaling and metabolic networks to support selection and fate decisions.

Since establishing a research lab at Indiana University in 2021, Dr. Luo's group has published several manuscripts linking mechanistic regulation of B cells to vaccine efficacy and has received multiple AAI abstract awards. Dr. Luo has secured fundings from NIH, the American Cancer Society, and the Showalter Research Trust Fund. In collaboration with bioengineers, Dr. Luo has designed novel adjuvant systems and immunization strategies to broaden and sustain vaccine responses. More recently, Dr. Luo's lab has developed human tonsil and spleen organoid systems to investigate human GC B and T cell signaling and vaccine responses. The combination of multidisciplinary expertise and cutting-edge tools uniquely positions Dr. Luo’s group to push the frontiers of GC immunology and guide the development of broadly protective vaccines and therapies for B cell mediated diseases.

Key Publications

  1. Wei Luo, Jessica Mayeux, Maria Toni Gutierrez, Andy Getahun, Jennifer Müller, Thomas Tedder, Shu-Hsia Chen, Robert Rickert, Lars Nitschke, John Cambier, Anne B. Satterthwaite, and Lee Ann Garrett-Sinha. A balance between BCR and inhibitory receptor signaling controls plasma cell differentiation by maintaining optimal Ets1 levels. The Journal of Immunology 193(2): 909-92 (2014/07)
  2. Wei Luo, Florian Weisel, Mark J Shlomchik. CD40 and BCR Signaling are Rewired for Synergistic c-Myc Induction in Germinal Center B cells. Immunity 48(2): 313-326 (2018/02)  
  3. Mark J Shlomchik, Wei Luo, and Florian Weisel. Linking signaling and selection in the germinal center. Immunological Reviews 288(1), 49-63 (2019/03)
  4. Wei Luo*, William Hawse*, Laura Conter, Nikita Trivedi, Florian Weisel, Daniel Wikenheiser, Richard T. Cattley, and Mark Shlomchik. The AKT signaling network is rewired by PTEN to control proximal BCR signaling in germinal center B cells. Nature Immunology 20(6),736-746 (2019/06)
  5. Wei Luo, Qian Yin. B cell response to vaccination. Immunological Investigations 1-22 (2021/10)
  6. Sampson Kwabina Boham, Wei Luo, Jiehao Zhou. Prominent cytoplasmic lipid droplets in a relapsed B-lymphoblastic leukaemia/lymphoma after multiple lines of therapy. International Journal of Laboratory Hematology 44, 1025-1026 (2022/12)
  7. Wei Luo*,#, Julia Z Adamska*, Chunfeng Li*, Rohit Verma, Qing Liu, Thomas Hagan, Florian Wimmers, Shakti Gupta, Yupeng Feng, Wenxia Jiang, Jiehao Zhou, Erika Valore, Yanli Wang, Meera Trisal, Shankar Subramaniam, Timothy F Osborne and Bali Pulendran#. SREBP signaling is essential for effective B cell responses and memory formation. Nature Immunology 24 (2), 337-348 (2023/02)
  8. Qian Yin*, Wei Luo*, Vamsee Mallajosyula, Yang Bo, Jing Guo, Jinghang Xie, Meng Sun, Rohit Verma, Chunfeng Li, Christian M. Constantz, Lisa E. Wagar, Jing Li, Elsa Sola, Neha Gupta, Chunlin Wang, Oliver Kask, Xin Chen, Xue Yuan, Nicholas C. Wu, Jianghong Rao, Yueh-hsiu Chien, Jianjun Cheng, Bali Pulendran and Mark M. Davis. A novel TLR7-nanoparticle adjuvant promotes broad immune responses against heterologous strains of Influenza and SARS-CoV-2. Nature Materials 22 (3), 380-390 (2023/03)
  9. Wei Luo*, Laura Conter*, Rebecca A. Elsner*, Shuchi Smita, Florian Weisel, Derrick Callahan, Shuxian Wu, Maria Chikina and Mark Shlomchik. IL-21R signal reprogramming cooperates with CD40 and BCR signals to select and differentiate germinal center B cells. Science Immunology 8 (80), eadd1823 (2023/02)
  10. Wenxia Jiang, Alexander R Maldeney, Xue Yuan, Martin J Richer, Scott E Renshaw, Wei Luo#. Ipsilateral immunization after a prior SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination elicits superior B cell responses compared to contralateral immunization. Cell reports 43 (1) (2024/01)
  11. Zhenhan Zhu, Wenxia Jiang, Jiehao Zhou, Alexander Robert Maldeney, Jingru Liang, Jing Yang, Wei Luo#. The Combined Inhibition of SREBP and mTORC1 Signaling Synergistically Inhibits B-Cell Lymphoma. Cancer Medicine 13 (21), e70342 (2024/11)
  12. Laura Conter, Shuchi Smita, Derrick Callahan, Shuxian Wu, Aiden Brown, Kevin M Nickerson, Rebecca A Elsner, Wenzhao Meng, Ayelet Peres, Gur Yaari, Steven H Kleinstein, Eline T Luning Prak, Wei Luo#, Mark Shlomchik#. BLIMP1 controls GC B cell expansion and exit through regulating cell cycle progression and key transcription factors BCL6 and IRF4. Cell Reports 44 (7), (2025/07)
  13. Alexander R Maldeney, Wenxia Jiang, Laura Conter, Daniel J Wikenheiser, William F Hawse, Anandkumar Patel, Weixun Peng, Mark J Shlomchik#, Wei Luo#. PTEN restricts IL-21R signaling in GC B cells and suppresses their differentiation to plasma cells. The Journal of Immunology vkaf160, (2025/08)

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