Je-Hyun Yoon, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor
Department: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Programs: Cellular Injury, Inflammation, End Organ Disease

 

 

Research Interests:

Dr. Yoon received his BS and MS from Korea University in Seoul, Korea, and his doctorate from the University of Arizona in Tuscon, AZ. He has been working in the field or RNA regulation of cell function since his postdoctoral work at the National Institute on Aging at the NIH. He has continued to focus on RNA biochemistry and biology since joining the MUSC faculty in 2015.

Alcohol-induced liver injury is a common cause of chronic liver disease and thus represents a major component of the toll taken by alcoholism. While much research has focused on the direct toxic effects of alcohol and its metabolites on the liver itself, Dr. Yoon and his laboratory are bringing their expertise in basic RNA biology to bear on a recently emerging paradigm that alcohol-induced injury to the gut allows injurious toxins, proteins and RNA species to escape into the circulation and reach the liver, where they contribute to the chronic liver injury observed in alcoholism.

Dr Yoon has made major contributions to the field or RNA biology, including seminal studies of the biochemical mechanisms regulating mRNA stability and gene expression. His lab focuses on the RNA binding proteins, microRNAs (miRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) that regulate the stability of protein-encoding mRNAs and their translation into protein products. They have linked the regulation of these non-coding RNA species to important aspects of cell survival and function, including cell division, cell senescence and stress responses to protein overload.

His current research focuses both on how these RNA regulatory mechanisms are involved in alcohol injury responses in gut endothelium and liver cells, and also how these responses are communicated through the circulation to liver hepatocytes by packets of RNA binding proteins and non-coding RNAs known as exosomes released by the injured gut. The Advanced Cell Imaging Core will facilitate the study of the intracellular mechanisms regulating non-coding RNA processing and exosomal release, while the Proteomics Core will allow for the identification quantitation of the various RNA-associated proteins transmitted in the circulation and correlated to liver dysfunction.

Publications:

PubMed Collection