Member Highlight Interview with Ang Cui – 2023  ICIS-Christina Fleischmann Award Winner

2023 Christina Fleischmann Award for Excellence in Cytokine & Interferon Research winner, Ang Cui, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Harvard University

Member Highlight Interview with Ang Cui

  • Please tell us your name, degree, where you currently work, position
    Ang Cui, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Harvard University
  • Where did you do your training?
    Ph.D., Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology; M.Sc., Yale University
    B.A.Sc., University of Toronto. I completed 12 years of research training in both computational and experimental immunology.

Briefly, what is your research about?

  • Our expertise is immunology and big data. We created the Immune Dictionary and its companion software Immune Response Enrichment Analysis (Cui et al., Nature, 2023), where we used single-cell transcriptomics to systematically analyze how every major gene (>10,000) in every major immune cell type (>17) responds to every major cytokine (=86) in vivo.
  • Tell us your thoughts about ICIS: how has being involved in the Cytokine Society help your career?
    It was an honor to receive the ICIS-Christina Fleischmann Award for Excellence in Cytokine & Interferon Research. Meeting many other people who love cytokines at Cytokines meetings was very enjoyable.
  • Are there any particular friendships or collaborations that came specifically out of Cytokines meetings?
    I spent time with Dr. Judy Lieberman and discussed exciting collaborations.
  • What Cytokines meeting(s) have been your favorites? Tell us about any special memories or anecdotes.
    Cytokines 2023 in Athens. It was fun to meet in person the colleagues I’ve exchanged emails with.
  • What do you like to do when not in the lab?
    I like to travel to Florida and enjoy the beaches.
  • What is the best life/career advice you’ve ever received?
    Perseverance is the key to success.
  • What book or TV show are you reading/watching right now that you recommend?
    Survivor. Watched almost every season. Except for the last few, I got distracted by studying cytokines.
  • What are your favorite cytokines?
    IL-1β and IL-18