UCR scientist wins AFAR grant for immune ageing

Huimin Zhang of UC Riverside has received a 2025 AFAR Grant for Junior Faculty to study immune ageing, one of six awards this year.

The Grants for Junior Faculty programme provides up to US$150,000 to junior faculty for one to two years to support research that will underpin longer-term work on the biology of ageing.

“This grant has helped many promising scientists advance the field’s understanding of the basic mechanisms of ageing, building a foundation of knowledge that will help us all live healthier, longer.” said Stephanie Lederman, executive director of AFAR.

Zhang’s research project is titled “Elucidating the role of HELIOS in epigenetic regulation of T cell ageing and TFH cell differentiation.” Her lab investigates why the immune system weakens with age, leaving older adults more vulnerable to infections and less responsive to vaccines. Her work centres on helper T cells — the “coaches” that guide B cells, the body’s antibody producers.

Her lab discovered that as people age, helper T cells lose a key protein called HELIOS, which impairs their ability to support B cells and weakens antibody responses. The lab is now testing whether restoring HELIOS can rejuvenate aged helper T cells, enhance B cell function and strengthen immune defences.

“Our ultimate goal is to design better vaccines and therapies that restore immune vitality in older adults,” Zhang said. “HELIOS appears to be a central switch controlling whether the immune system stays strong and precise or falters with age. When it declines, the immune ‘coaching system’ is out of balance.”

By restoring HELIOS in ageing T cells, Zhang’s lab hopes to strengthen how these cells support B cells and boost antibody responses. This could lead to new vaccine boosters or molecular “add-ons” that help older adults respond to infections as effectively as younger people — reducing hospitalisations from pneumonia, shingles or flu by reviving the immune system at its core.

Zhang explained that studying HELIOS also helps in understanding how ageing reshapes our epigenetics and immune function, which can assist in identifying those most at risk and reveal new ways to rejuvenate immunity. Epigenetics refers to changes in how genes are switched on or off without altering the DNA sequence.

“The key idea: ageing immunity isn’t broken — it can be reprogrammed,” she said. “In the end, our research isn’t just about ageing — it’s about rewriting its rules. By turning these insights into new vaccines and immune-reviving therapies, we aim to help older adults fight disease with the strength of youth, thus transforming the science of ageing into the medicine of longevity.”

Zhang received her doctoral degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from UCLA, followed by postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute and Stanford University. She joined UCR in 2023 and is committed to mentoring the next generation of scientists at the intersection of immunology and ageing.

AFAR is a national non-profit organisation that supports and advances pioneering biomedical research.