
Yi-Guang Chen, PhD
Professor, Pediatrics (Endocrinology) and Microbiology & Immunology
Locations
- Pediatrics (Endocrinology)
TBRC C2520
Contact Information
General Interests
Education
BS, National Taiwan University, Taiwan, 1993
Research Interests
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) results from T cell mediated destruction of insulin producing pancreatic β-cells. Although T1D is most frequently diagnosed in children and young adults, it is a life-long disease requiring daily injections or infusions of exogenous insulin to maintain glucose homeostasis. Furthermore, many T1D patients develop diabetic complications later in life significantly threatening the quality of their lives. Unfortunately, the incidence of T1D has been increasing worldwide in the past decades. Studies conducted in both rodent models and humans indicate that genetic susceptibility significantly contributes to T1D development. Human genome wide association studies (GWAS) have identified more than 50 loci significantly linked to T1D. However, our knowledge of the underlying genes within the mapped GWAS regions and their pathogenic roles in T1D is incomplete. The focus of our research program is to further understand the genetic basis of T1D with the following three main goals. (1) To identify T1D susceptibility genes and mechanistically study their disease modulating functions, (2) To evaluate the potential of pharmaceutical targeting of T1D susceptibility genes and the pathways in which they are involved for disease prevention and reversal, and (3) To determine if T1D susceptibility genes also modulate the responses to clinically relevant therapeutic agents. The NOD mouse represents one of the best rodent models for T1D research. NOD mice develop spontaneous T1D with characteristics similar to the human disease. Our current effort is to genetically modify genes within the human T1D susceptibility loci identified by GWAS in NOD mice and functionally evaluate their roles in diabetes development. These genetically modified NOD mice also allow us to study how T1D susceptibility genes contribute to diabetes development at both the molecular and cellular levels.
Figure 1. Islet infiltration of leukocytes that destroy pancreatic β-cells in NOD mice. (A) A healthy islet without leukocyte infiltration. (B-D) Islets with various levels of leukocyte infiltration (insulitis).
Publications
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Autoreactive CD8 T cells in NOD mice exhibit phenotypic heterogeneity but restricted TCR gene usage.
(Kasmani MY, Ciecko AE, Brown AK, Petrova G, Gorski J, Chen YG, Cui W.) Life Sci Alliance. 2022 10;5(10) PMID: 35667687 PMCID: PMC9170949 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85131338160 06/07/2022
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(Cabrera SM, Coren AT, Pant T, Ciecko AE, Jia S, Roethle MF, Simpson PM, Atkinson SN, Salzman NH, Chen YG, Hessner MJ.) Sci Rep. 2022 02 28;12(1):3306 PMID: 35228584 PMCID: PMC8885673 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85125563972 03/02/2022
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(Rojas M, Heuer LS, Zhang W, Chen YG, Ridgway WM.) Front Immunol. 2022;13:918837 PMID: 35935980 PMCID: PMC9353112 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85135448167 08/09/2022
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(Ciecko AE, Schauder DM, Foda B, Petrova G, Kasmani MY, Burns R, Lin CW, Drobyski WR, Cui W, Chen YG.) J Immunol. 2021 10 15;207(8):1990-2004 PMID: 34507949 PMCID: PMC8492517 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85116529072 09/12/2021
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(Allred MG, Chimenti MS, Ciecko AE, Chen YG, Lieberman SM.) Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Apr 05;22(7) PMID: 33916486 PMCID: PMC8038628 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85103560035 05/01/2021
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Single-cell lineage mapping of a diverse virus-specific naive CD4 T cell repertoire.
(Khatun A, Kasmani MY, Zander R, Schauder DM, Snook JP, Shen J, Wu X, Burns R, Chen YG, Lin CW, Williams MA, Cui W.) J Exp Med. 2021 03 01;218(3) PMID: 33201171 PMCID: PMC7676493 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85096353007 11/18/2020
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(Allred MG, Chimenti MS, Ciecko AE, Chen YG, Lieberman SM.) International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 1 April 2021;22(7) SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85103560035 04/01/2021
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(Ciecko AE, Foda B, Barr JY, Ramanathan S, Atkinson MA, Serreze DV, Geurts AM, Lieberman SM, Chen YG.) Cell Reports. 2 February 2021;34(5) SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85100240717 02/02/2021
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(Debreceni IL, Chimenti MS, Serreze DV, Geurts AM, Chen YG, Lieberman SM.) Int J Mol Sci. 2020 Dec 13;21(24) PMID: 33322152 PMCID: PMC7764018 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85097667415 12/17/2020
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(Chen YG, Ciecko AE, Khaja S, Grzybowski M, Geurts AM, Lieberman SM.) Sci Rep. 2020 07 21;10(1):12019 PMID: 32694640 PMCID: PMC7374577 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85088288172 07/23/2020
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(Foda BM, Ciecko AE, Serreze DV, Ridgway WM, Geurts AM, Chen YG.) J Immunol. 2020 06 01;204(11):2887-2899 PMID: 32295876 PMCID: PMC7296588 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85084888777 04/17/2020
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(Shapiro MR, Yeh WI, Longfield JR, Gallagher J, Infante CM, Wellford S, Posgai AL, Atkinson MA, Campbell-Thompson M, Lieberman SM, Serreze DV, Geurts AM, Chen YG, Brusko TM.) Front Immunol. 2020;11:2180 PMID: 33013915 PMCID: PMC7500101 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85091212749 10/06/2020