PhD candidates MINA Sohana Akter and FANG Xiang, supervised by Professor YANG Guan, represented the lab at the European Phagocyte Workshop 2026 (EPW 2026) held in Oxford, United Kingdom,from March 22 to 25, 2026. Both researchers presented their most recent findings in immunology and infectious diseases, underscoring their ongoing contributions to elucidating phagocyte-mediated immune mechanisms during hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKp) infection.
The European Phagocyte Workshop is a prominent international conference series that showcases advances in phagocyte biology and related areas of immunology. The meeting convenes investigators from around the world and fosters networking and collaboration aimed at advancing understanding of immune regulation in phagocyte biology.
At the conference, Sohana presented a poster focusing on macrophage efferocytosis during hvKp infection. Her work highlights miR-34a as a potential therapeutic target, demonstrating that its inhibition promotes efferocytosis and alleviates hvKp infection with decreased cytokine storm, lymphopenia, and lung inflammation in mice. On the other hand, Xiang’s work focuses on exploration of neutrophil heterogeneity in hvKp infection. Her findings characterize four different neutrophil subsets with varied functions, maturation levels and morphologies, indicating that these subpopulations could serve as potential targets for future therapeutic intervention.
Sohana and her poster
Xiang and her poster
Sohana and Xiang at the conference venue