Rio & Zeyneb
UCLA B.I.G
Undergraduate Summer Program 2016
Xia, Ugoma, & Ashok

Latest News

  1. Our collaborative work with Dr. Slavica Tudzarova at the UCLA Larry L. Hillblom Islet Research Center, entitled “Dysfunctional β-cell longevity in diabetes relies on high energy conservation and positive epistasis” was accepted for publication in Life Science Alliance! Congratulations to Juliana!
  2. Ruoshui Liu and Dr. Montgomery Blencowe’s IAPP islet-T2D paper, in collaboration with Drs. Tatyana Gurlo and Peter Butler, was just accepted by Physiological Genomics!
  3. Our review paper on single cell multiomics approaches, analytical methods, and applications in toxicology, co-led by Dr. Graciel Diamante and Dr. Daniel Ha with significant contribution from Darren Wiijaya, has been accepted for publication by Current Opinions in Toxicology.
  4. Our paper entitled ‘Systematic Transcriptome-wide Meta-Analysis across Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals Reveals Shared and Unique Liver Pathways, Gene Networks, and Disease Associations’  has been accepted by Environmental International! Many thanks to Zacary Zamora and Dr. Graciel Diamante  for leading and completing the project with much diligence and persistence!  Also thanks to Drs. Susanna Wang and Yen-Wei Chen  for their contributions to this work.
  5. Congratulations, Dr. Xia Yang , on making it to the finalists for this year’s Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring Award! The ceremony will be held on November 8 at CNSI.
  6. Our collaborative study with Dr. Elaine Hsiao’s lab, “Ketogenic diet therapy for pediatric epilepsy is associated with alterations in the human gut microbiome that confer seizure resistance in mice” was accepted by Cell Reports! Congrats to lab members Dr. Daniel Ha and Dr. Montgomery Blencowe for their contributions
  7. Our collaborative study with Dr. Jake Lusis’s lab, “Role of Matrix Gla Protein in Transforming Growth Factor-β Signaling and Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis in Mice” was accepted by Cell Mol Gastroenterol Hepatol! Congrats to lab members Dr. Montgomery Blencowe and Dr. Graciel Diamante for their contributions
  8. Congratulations to Julie Tran and Ning Wang for receiving URSP Scholarship!
  9. Congratulations to Zacary Zamora for receiving MolTox T32 predoctoral fellowship!
  10. Congratulations to both Gaoyan and Jessica for their successful PhD defenses! We are so proud of our newly vetted Drs. Gaoyan Li and Jessica Ding! They truly make us all proud!!

Integrative Multiomics and Systems Biology of Common Human Diseases


Research in our lab employs integrative multiomics and systems biology approaches to understand the molecular networks underlying common cardiometabolic disorders such as coronary artery disease, diabetes, obesity, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, brain disorders such as traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer’s disease, and the connections between cardiometabolic disorders and brain disorders.

Our research is built upon the hypothesis that the complex interactions between genetic (i.e., DNA variants) and environmental risk factors (e.g., diets, environmental pollutants) perturb specific gene networks which in turn induce variations in disease susceptibility and therapeutic response.

By developling and applying integrative multiomics and systems biology approaches that leverage genetic, transcriptomics, epigenomic, metabolomic, microbiome, and phenotypic data from human and rodent populations, we aim to identify causal molecular networks and key regulators that contribute to the development of human complex diseases and further utilize the disease networks to guide therapeutics. Details of our research are here.

Our lab has developed Mergeomics and Pharmomics tools for muti-omics data integration and drug repurposing, respectively. Details of these tools are here.

Our research is generously supported by JDRF and NIH NIDDK, NINDS, NIMH, NICHD, and NHLBI.

A disease network and key regulators. Figure credit: Jenny Cheng

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute