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Yu, Y. Eugene, Ph.D.
Associate Member
Department of Cancer Genetics
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Elm and Carlton Streets
Buffalo, NY 14263
Telephone: (716)845-1099
Fax: (716)845-1698
E-mail: Yuejin.Yu@RoswellPark.org
Dr. Yu is a faculty member of the Department of Cancer Genetics and Genetics Program at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology in the Graduate Program of SUNY at Buffalo and the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences.
Description of Research
One of the current focuses of Dr. Yu’s laboratory is the molecular genetic analysis of human trisomy 21 (Down syndrome). Trisomy 21 is the most frequent live-born human aneuploidy. In the United States, trisomy 21 occurs in approximately 1 in 733 births, and more than 400,000 people have Down syndrome. Trisomy 21 is the most common genetic cause of congenital heart disease and cognitive deficits. It is a leading cause of megakaryoblastic leukemia and causes early-onset Alzheimer-type neurodegeneration in nearly every individual with trisomy 21. The mouse is the premier model organism for Down syndrome because of the existence of highly conserved syntenic regions between human chromosome 21 and three segments of the mouse genome on mouse chromosomes 10, 16 and 17. Using the powerful tool of Cre/loxP-mediated chromosome engineering, Dr. Yu’s laboratory is in the process of generating and analyzing new mouse mutants that carry the desired duplications and deletions of the human chromosome 21 syntenic regions in order to narrow down the genomic regions associated with the aforementioned trisomy 21 phenotypes. Their goal is to identify the causative genes.
Dr. Yu’s laboratory is also interested in the mouse-based genetic dissection of tumor-associated chromosomal rearrangements, such as deletions and translocations. Such efforts should facilitate the establishment of critical genetic alterations in the formation of various types of human tumors.
Selected publications
- Liu C, Szurek PF, Yu YE. MICER targeting vectors for manipulating the mouse genome. Methods Mol Biol; in press.
- Yu YE, Wen L, Silva J, Li Z, Head K, Sossey-Alaoui K, Pao A, Mei L, Cowell JK. Lgi1 null mutant mice exhibit myoclonic seizures and CA1 neuronal hyperexcitability. Hum Mol Genet 2010; in press (Advance Access: http://hmg.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/ddq047).
- Yu YE*, Ijuin T*, Mizutani K, Pao A, Tateya S, Tamori Y, Bradley A, Takenawa T. Increased insulin action in SKIP heterozygous knockout mice. Mol Cell Biol 2008; 28:5184-5195. *Contributed equally.
- Li Z, Yu T, Morishima M, Pao A, Laduca J, Conroy J, Nowak N, Matsui SI, Shiraishi I, Yu YE. Duplication of the entire 22.9 Mb human chromosome 21 syntenic region on mouse chromosome 16 causes cardiovascular and gastrointestinal abnormalities. Hum Mol Genet 2007; 16:1359-1366.
- Yu YE, Morishima M, Pao A, Wang DY, Wen XY, Baldini A, Bradley A. A deficiency in the region homologous to human 17q21.33-q23.2 causes heart defects in mice. Genetics 2006; 173:297-307.
- Hentges KE, Nakamura H, Furuta Y, Yu Y, Thompson DM, O'Brien W, Bradley A, Justice MJ. Novel lethal mouse mutants produced in balancer chromosome screens. Gene Exp Patterns 2006; 6:653-665.
- Li Z, Szurek PF, Jiang C, Pao A, Bundy BN, Le W-D, Bradley A, Yu YE. Neuronal differentiation of NTE-deficient embryonic stem cells. Biochem Biophys Res Comm 2005; 330:1103-1109.
- Adams DJ, Biggs PJ, Cox T, Davies R, van der Weyden L, Jonkers J, Smith J, Plumb B, Taylor R, Nishijima I, Yu Y, Rogers J, Bradley A. Mutagenic insertion and chromosome engineering resource (MICER). Nat Genet 2004; 36:867-871.
- Chung Y-J, Jonkers J, Kitson H, Fiegler H, Humphray S, Scott C, Hunt S, Yu Y, Nishijima I, Velds A, Holstege H, Carter N, Bradley A. A whole-genome mouse BAC microarray with 1 Mb resolution for analysis of DNA copy number changes by array comparative genomic hybridization. Genome Res 2004; 14:188-196.
- Yu Y and Bradley A. Engineering chromosomal rearrangements in mice. Nat Rev Genet 2001; 2:780-790.
- Zhao M, Shirley CR, Yu YE, Mohapatra B, Zhang Y, Unni E, Deng GM, Arango NA, Weil M, Russell LD, Behringer RR, Meistrich ML. Targeted disruption of the transition protein 2 gene affects sperm chromatin structure and reduces fertility in mice. Molec Cell Biol 2001; 21:7243-7255.
- Yu YE, Unni E, Zhang Y, Christian C, Deng GM, Russell LD, Weil M, Behringer RR, Meistrich ML. Abnormal spermatogenesis and reduced fertility in transition nuclear protein 1-deficient mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2000; 97:4683-4688.
