Aimin Jiang, PhD

Biographical Statement

An associate scientist at Henry Ford since 2019, Dr. Jiang's lab is part of the prestigious Center for Cutaneous Biology and Immunology. The lab is currently investigating novel strategies to improve cancer immunotherapies. The team is targeting dendritic cells (DC) and their cross-priming behavior on tumor antigen-specific CD8 T cells toward this goal.

Research Interests

• β-catenin signaling in dendritic cells (DCs): Dr. Jiang and his colleagues identified E-cadherin/β-catenin signaling as a pathway that drives tolerogenic DCs and later showed that tumors exploit β-catenin signaling in DCs to suppress anti-tumor immunity by blocking cross-priming. Also discovered stage-specific roles for β-catenin in supporting CD8 T cell maintenance, highlighting its therapeutic relevance.
• Plasmacytoid DC-derived exosomes (pDC exosomes): The team identified pDC exosomes as antigen-transfer vehicles that enhance CD8 T cell cross-priming through recipient APCs rather than direct exosomal MHCI presentation, supporting the development of pDC exosomes as an off-the-shelf, cell-free vaccine platform.
• Tim-3-targeted DC vaccine platform: The team developed a Tim-3-targeted vaccine platform that broadens antigen delivery beyond cDC1s to include cDC2s and other Tim-3+ APCs. This work represents a major translational direction of Dr. Jiang's research, aimed at developing next-generation cancer vaccines that can overcome cDC1 scarcity, DC dysfunction, and tumor-mediated immune suppression.

Email: ajiang3@hfhs.org