Shoubao Ma, Ph.D.

(626) 256-4673
Shoubao Ma, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation
Clinical Expertise
  • Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation
Research Area
  • NK cell biology
  • NK Cell-based immunology
  • Mechanisms of immune evasion
  • CAR T cell therapy for solid tumors
Academic Appointments
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation
Clinical Teams
Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation

Shoubao Ma, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in City of Hope’s Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation. Over the course of the past 16 years, Dr. Ma has led and contributed to pioneering research in the fields of immunology, cancer immunotherapy, and transplantation immunology.

Dr. Ma authored 52 peer-reviewed publications, with over 30 as first author, co-first author, or senior/co-senior author, in prestigious journals such as Nature Immunology (2022, 2023, 2025), Science Immunology (2023, 2024), Molecular Cell (2025), Cancer Discovery (2019), Journal of Experimental Medicine (2021), PNAS (2022), Trends in Immunology (2022, 2025), Molecular Cancer (2022), Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy (2019, 2022), Journal of Hematology & Oncology (2022), Cancer Research (2014, 2023), and Journal of Immunology (2014, 2025). Dr. Ma has received several national and institutional awards for his innovative research, including a National Scholarship (2013), the Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award (2015), the American Association of Immunologists Annual Meeting Travel Award (2019), and the Early Career Faculty Grant (2024).

The overarching goal of Dr. Ma’s laboratory is twofold: (1) to uncover the mechanisms that regulate the proliferation, survival, function, and exhaustion of natural killer (NK) cells, and to apply this knowledge to improve NK and CAR-NK cell therapies for cancer, autoimmune disorders, and inflammatory diseases; and (2) to uncover the mechanisms by which tumor cells evade immune surveillance and to develop innovative, cell-based immunotherapies for cancer treatment.

Education & Experience

Degrees

  • 2014, Ph.D., Immunology, Soochow University
  • 2009, B.A., Biotechnology, Yangzhou University

Fellowship

  • 2021-2023, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA

Professional Experience

  • 2023-present, Member, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center
  • 2023 - present, Assistant Professor, Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, Duarte, CA

Awards & Memberships

Awards

  • 2025, R01 Award, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
  • 2025, New Investigator Leukemia Research Grant, Leukemia Research Foundation
  • 2024, American Association of Immunologists (AAI) Early Career Faculty Grant
  • 2019, Travel Award, The American Association of Immunologists Annual Meeting

Memberships

  • 2024 – Present, Member, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
  • 2024 – Present, Member, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC)
  • 2024 – Present, Member, American Society of Hematology (ASH)
  • 2023 – Present, Member, American Association of Immunologists (AAI)

Publications

Selected from over 52 publications (* co-first author, # co-senior author)

  • Xiao S, Duan S, Hong Y, Zhang J, Ma S (#), Caligiuri MA, Yu J: Loss of YTHDF2 enhances Th9 programming and CAR-Th9 cell antitumor efficacy. Nat Immunol 2025.
  • Liu T, Yang D, Wei Q, Wang Y, Tian L, Liu X, Yang Y, Luo Q, Xu J, Liu Y, Yang C, Zuo X, Luo F, Luo X, Zhao H, Li L, Xu J, Yu J, Ma S (#), Yu J, Yi P. The RNA-stability-independent role of the RNA m(6)A reader YTHDF2 in promoting protein translation to confer tumor chemotherapy resistance. Mol Cell 2025, 85(12):2320-2336.e2329.
  • Xiao S, Duan S, Caligiuri MA, Ma S (#), Yu J: YTHDF2: a key RNA reader and antitumor target. Trends Immunol 2025, 46(6):485-498.
  • Ma S (#), Yu J, Caligiuri MA: Natural killer cell-based immunotherapy for cancer. J Immunol 2025, 214(7):1444-1456.
  • Xiao S, Ma S (*), Sun B, Pu W, Duan S, Han J, Hong Y, Zhang J, Peng Y, He C et al: The tumor-intrinsic role of the m(6)A reader YTHDF2 in regulating immune evasion. Sci Immunol 2024, 9(95):eadl2171.
  • Ma S, Caligiuri MA, Yu J: Harnessing Natural Killer Cells for Lung Cancer Therapy. Cancer Res 2023, 83(20):3327-3339.
  • Ma S, Han J, Li Z, Xiao S, Zhang J, Yan J, Tang T, Barr T, Kraft AS, Caligiuri MA et al: An XBP1s-PIM-2 positive feedback loop controls IL-15-mediated survival of natural killer cells. Sci Immunol 2023, 8(81):eabn7993.
  • Ma S, Sun B, Duan S, Han J, Barr T, Zhang J, Bissonnette MB, Kortylewski M, He C, Chen J et al: YTHDF2 orchestrates tumor-associated macrophage reprogramming and controls antitumor immunity through CD8(+) T cells. Nat Immunol 2023, 24(2):255-266.
  • Gong H, Ma S (#), Chen J, Yang B, Liu S, Liu X, Han J, Wu X, Lei L, Yin Z et al: Dendritic cell-derived IL-27 p28 regulates T cell program in pathogenicity and alleviates acute graft-versus-host disease. Signal Transduct Target Ther 2022, 7(1):319.
  • Ma S, Caligiuri MA, Yu J: Harnessing IL-15 signaling to potentiate NK cell-mediated cancer immunotherapy. Trends Immunol 2022, 43(10):833-847.
  • Li Z, Ma R, Ma S (*), Tian L, Lu T, Zhang J, Mundy-Bosse BL, Zhang B, Marcucci G, Caligiuri MA et al: ILC1s control leukemia stem cell fate and limit development of AML. Nat Immunol 2022, 23(5):718-730.
  • Ma S, Caligiuri MA, Yu J: A four-stage model for murine natural killer cell development in vivo. J Hematol Oncol 2022, 15(1):31.
  • Ma S, Tang T, Wu X, Mansour AG, Lu T, Zhang J, Wang LS, Caligiuri MA, Yu J: PDGF-D-PDGFRβ signaling enhances IL-15-mediated human natural killer cell survival. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2022, 119(3).
  • Ma S, Yan J, Barr T, Zhang J, Chen Z, Wang LS, Sun JC, Chen J, Caligiuri MA, Yu J: The RNA m6A reader YTHDF2 controls NK cell antitumor and antiviral immunity. J Exp Med 2021, 218(8).
  • Dong W, Wu X, Ma S (*), Wang Y, Nalin AP, Zhu Z, Zhang J, Benson DM, He K, Caligiuri MA et al: The Mechanism of Anti-PD-L1 Antibody Efficacy against PD-L1-Negative Tumors Identifies NK Cells Expressing PD-L1 as a Cytolytic Effector. Cancer Discov 2019, 9(10):1422-1437.