New Jackson Laboratory Researcher to Investigate Cancer, Brain Development
| Date: February 3, 2006 | 
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Bar Harbor, Maine - With most of the logistical tasks involved with setting up a laboratory already behind her, Dr. Kyuson Yun is starting her primary work as The Jackson Laboratory's newest researcher. Recently arrived from Dartmouth Medical School, Yun adds to Jackson's already strong effort in neuroscience research.
Yun’s research focuses on neural stem cells—cells found in the human and mouse brain that retain the ability to develop into mature neurons or nerve cells—and neurodevelopment. “There is great potential for the use of stem cells in clinical therapies for genetic diseases, including neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease,” she said, “but much remains to be discovered about the mechanisms that regulate their maintenance and differentiation.”
She is particularly interested in the role of transcription factors—proteins that regulate gene expression—in generating and maintaining the neural stem cells. “We are studying processes that are controlled by a family of transcription factors known as Id genes to learn more about neural stem cell development and regulation.”
At Jackson she also plans to work with a different kind of stem cell—tumor stem cells. First identified only a few years ago, recent research suggests that they play a critical role in developing and maintaining tumors. Yun has already isolated tumor stem cells from a mouse model of brain tumors and will use the resources available to her at Jackson to characterize them at cellular and molecular levels. She will also use a genetically manipulated mouse model to test the hypothesis that the killing of tumor stem cells is both necessary and sufficient to abolish existing tumors in animals.
"The tumor stem cells are slow-dividing and express genes that allow them to evade therapies that target the quickly dividing cancer cells," Yun said. "Since a small number of these surviving cells can initiate tumors, their existence may explain the recurrence of cancer even when the tumor appears to have been eliminated by surgery and chemotherapy."
Yun received her B.S. in biology from Caltech in 1989 and her Ph.D. in biology from Caltech in 1997. She worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California/San Francisco before moving to Dartmouth in Hanover, N.H., first as a research associate and then as an instructor in the department of genetics.
Jackson has a strong history of research into the genetics of neurology and neurological disorders. Current investigators who focus principally in neuroscience include Staff Scientist and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Invesigator Dr. Susan Ackerman, who works with the genes controlling neurodevelopment and neuron survival. Dr. Robert Burgess also works with neurodevelopment and investigates Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Wayne Frankel seeks to unravel the molecular mechanisms of neurological disease, with an emphasis on inherited epilepsy. Dr. Verity Letts studies the genetic bases for absence epilepsy. And Staff Scientist and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator Dr. Simon John studies pressure-induced neurodegeneration through his investigations into the genetics of glaucoma.
The Jackson Laboratory, founded in 1929, is the world's largest mammalian genetics research institution, with facilities in Bar Harbor, Maine, and West Sacramento, Calif. Its research staff of more than 450 investigates the genetic basis of cancers, heart disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, glaucoma, diabetes and many other human diseases and disorders. The Laboratory is also the world's source for nearly 3,000 strains of genetically defined mice, home of the Mouse Genome Database and many other publicly available information resources, and an international hub for scientific courses, conferences, training and education.
Contact(s): Mark Wanner, mark.wanner@jax.org, 207-288-6051
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