Yoon-Young JangAssociate Professor, Department of Oncology, Institute for Cell Engineering,Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, USA.
Research Interest
My laboratory has focused on understanding of stem cell fate changes. We have been interested in using pluripotent stem cells as research tools for studying human hepatogenesis and pathogenesis of liver diseases. We have generated a large panel of human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines from various sources (of both healthy- and disease- tissues) including primary hepatocytes, bone marrow stem cells, blood cells, keratinocytes, fibroblasts and tumor cells. In addition, we have successfully differentiated these iPSCs into endoderm as well as early and late stage hepatic cells by a step wise hepatic specification protocol. We have shown the comprehensive functionality of these iPSC derived liver cells using both in vitro and in vivo assays. Recently, our iPSC generation and hepatic differentiation as well as gene targeting technologies have been successfully utilized in liver disease modelling, pathogenesis study, drug discovery, and cell therapy. We are currently committed to the discovery and development of novel therapeutic approaches to liver disease prevention and treatment using this patient specific iPSC technology.