Xiaoyi Yuan
Assistant Professor
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
McGovern Medical School
Department of Anesthesiology
The Yuan lab focuses on the discovery of endogenous anti-inflammatory pathways in immune cells during pathogen-associated Acute Respiratory Ditress Syndrome (including COVID-19 ARDS). One of the main research areas in Yuan lab explores microRNAs (miRNA) as endogenous inhibitors of macrophage inflammation during ARDS. miRNAs constitute a family of short noncoding RNA molecules of 20 to 25 nucleotides in length that regulate gene expression at the posttranscriptional level. Macrophages are innate immunes cells sensing environmental challenges and aid in tissue repair. The diverse role of macrophages in tissue- and disease-specific stages makes them an attractive target for developing a novel therapeutic target.
Dr. Yuan has been first-authored and co-authored more than 35 papers (see full list in the PubMed link below) in prestigious journals, including Science Translational Medicine, JCI Insight, Nature Mucosal Inflammation, Science, Nature Immunology, etc. A prospective graduate student is expected to perform four levels of studies: to explore transcription regulation of gene targets, to identify mechanisms controlling macrophage inflammation, to discover inter-cellular communication between immune cells, and finally, to investigate the tissue-specific role of gene targets using state of the art gene delivery methods and transgenic animal models.
Education & Training
PhD – Baylor College of Medicine – 2015