Dr. Tang is an immunologist and a professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).  Dr. Tang received her medical training at the Peking Union Medical College, her PhD in immunology at the University of Illinois in Chicago, and her postdoctoral fellowship on immune tolerance at University of Chicago and UCSF.  She is currently the director of the UCSF Transplantation Research Laboratory and leads basic and translational research in transplantation immunology at UCSF.  The Tang lab investigates the immune system’s self-control mechanisms to prevent autoimmune diseases and transplant rejection.  Current research program in the Tang lab encompasses two general areas: therapeutic application of regulatory T cells in autoimmune and transplant patients and beta cell replacement therapy for the treatment of type 1 diabetes.  The Tang lab has shown that infusion of regulatory T cells can reverse type 1 diabetes and prevent rejection of transplanted islets in animal models. Her research group has developed processes to selectively grow human regulatory T cells that target transplant antigens and obtained FDA permission to evaluate safety and efficacy of these cells in organ transplant recipients.  In collaboration with stem cell biologists and bioengineers, the Tang lab is developing approaches to modulate immune responses to stem-cell-derived beta cells for immunosuppression-free beta cell replacement for patients with long-term type 1 diabetes.