Min Peng

Dr. Peng received his bachelor's degree in clinical medicine from the West China School of Medicine, Sichuan University, China, in 2005, and his Ph.D. in immunology from Peking Union Medical College, China, in 2010. From 2010 to 2017, he pursued postdoctoral research in Dr. Ming Li’s laboratory at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA, where he focused on nutrient sensing and immunometabolism. During this time, Dr. Peng identified novel regulators of the mTORC1 pathway and uncovered a metabolic-epigenetic axis that dictates T cell differentiation. These studies were published in Nature, Cell, and Science.

In 2017, Dr. Peng joined Tsinghua University, where he currently leads a team dedicated to studying T cell biology, with an emphasis on T cell longevity in infection and immunotherapy. His laboratory recently demonstrated the induction of CAR T cells into a novel Immortal-like and Functional state, termed TIF. These reprogrammed CARTIF cells exhibit nearly limitless stemness, resembling induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), while maintaining the functional capabilities of mature T cells. This unprecedented state of T cells enables long-term functional persistence of CAR T cells in vivo, with transformative potential for T cell-based therapies. One notable application of this technology is a single infusion of multifunctional CARTIF cells targeting eosinophils and type 2 cytokines, which demonstrated curative effects for asthma, a prevalent chronic disease. These findings have been published in Nature Immunology, The Journal of Experimental Medicine, and other leading journals, and relevant clinical trials are currently underway.