Yung Lab

Laboratory of Cell Based Therapy and Neuroscience
Principal Investigator: Yun Yung

 

RESEARCH

The laboratory team is passionate about applying basic scientific expertise to accelerate biotech innovation for therapeutics and diagnostics to promote health and aimed at achieving these goals via three distinct project efforts:

Project 1

Uncovering basic signaling mechanisms that underlie the blood and hemorrhage-related brain disorders such as post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus (PHH) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). As an example, bioactive lipids such as lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) found in blood and their cognate GPCRs can influence and cause cellular changes that remodel brain development and result in alter growth trajectories or disease. We are focused on developing treatments to ameliorate PHH and TBI.

Project 2

Developing novel and effective treatments using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived cells for therapy. My lab collaborates closely with Allele Biotechnology to produce the highest quality GMP-grade iPSCs and develop robust differentiation methods for producing beta cells for diabetes, oligodendrocytes and OPCs for spinal cord injury, and more. We are currently assessing disease modification in preclinical models towards IND filing and clinical trials.

Project 3

Creating cutting edge high throughput COVID diagnostics and therapies using nanobodies, machine learning, and big data. My lab is part of a consortium effort of biologists, robotics and automation engineers, UI/UX designers, and machine learning scientists who are focused on delivering a suite of products that can meaningfully reduce the pandemic for large swaths of the population around the world.