ASCI / Emerging-Generation Awards, 2024

Yijia Li, MD is a junior faculty/assistant professor and clinical attending physician at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. His research focuses on HIV-1 persistence and reservoir dynamics, SARS-CoV-2 virology, and HIV-1 non-AIDS complications. Clinically he is passionate about HIV care, especially for people from underrepresented backgrounds (uninsured, homeless, recent release from incarceration, substance use), LGBTQIA+ health (PrEP care, sexual health, and gender-affirming care), in addition to general infectious diseases. he is actively involved in the AIDS Clinical Trials Group and MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study, and his roles included participant recruitment/follow-up, bioinformatics/biostatistical support, and conducting sub-studies under the mentorship of Dr. Jonathan Z. Li from Harvard Medical School and Drs. Bernard Macatangay, Sharon Riddler and John Mellors from University of Pittsburgh. For example, in their recent studies (Etemad, Sun, Li et al., PNAS 2023; PMID: 36877848), they revealed several important viro-immunological features associated with post-treatment control (PTC), including a stable intact HIV proviral reservoir, stable inflammatory response, higher CD4+ T cell% and CD4+/CD8+ ratio, more functional NK cells, and a lower CD4+ T cell exhaustion level.  In another related study, they discovered that halted HIV-1 transcription completion is associated PTC during treatment interruption, and this is closely related to differential transcriptomic features, including interferon, IL-7, p53, and TNF pathways between PTC and non-controllers (NC) (Wedrychowski A, Martin HA, Li Y et al., JVI 2023; PMID: 36541802). 

In Dr. Li's future research career, he wants to further expand work on the viro-immunological mechanisms behind HIV-1 persistence in certain unique populations, focusing on PTC, people with HIV (PWH) on long-term ART, and PWH with non-suppressible HIV-1. He proposes to use multidimensional high-throughput platforms including bulk and single-cell RNA-Seq, plasma/serum proteomics (Olink, Li Y et al., JCI 2021; PMID: 34196300), and metabolomics in close collaboration with multiple laboratories across the ACTG/MWCCS sites. Further understanding of those mechanisms could help find novel targets to overcome HIV-1 persistence and get closer to a functional HIV cure.