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

Latest News

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. Congratulations to Julie Tran and Ning Wang for receiving URSP Scholarship!
  6. Congratulations to Zacary Zamora for receiving MolTox T32 predoctoral fellowship!
  7. 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!!
  8. Our collaborative study with Dr. Andrea Hevener, “Conserved multitissue transcriptomic adaptations to exercise training in humans and mice” was accepted by Cell Reports! Congrats to lab members Dr. Graciel Diamante , Dr. In Sook Ahn and Dr. Montgomery Blencowe for their contributions
  9. Our collaborative study with Dr. Patrick Allard’s group, “Single-nucleus resolution mapping of the adult C. elegans and its application to elucidate inter- and trans-generational response to alcohol” was accepted by Cell Reports! Our former graduate student Dr. Yen-Wei Chen who did the scRNAseq data analysis was a co-first author on this study. Congrats!!
  10. Our collaborative work with Dr. Olu Ajijola’s group, “Tiered Sympathetic Control of Cardiac Function Revealed by Viral Tracing and Single Cell Transcriptome Profiling”, has been accepted by elife. Congratulations to Dr. Russell Littman (co-first author) and Dr. Doug Arneson (co-author)
  11. Congratulations to Dr. Jason Hong for receiving the 2023 American Thoracic Society Early Career Investigator Award in Pulmonary Vascular Disease
  12. Our collaborative study of pulmonary arterial hypertension with Dr. Jason Hong and Dr. Mansoureh Eghbali  was accepted by AJRCMB! Congratulations to the teams!
  13. Congratulations to Jessica Ding for receving the 2022 IBP Hyde Fellowship! So proud of all your achievements!
  14. Our collaborative work with Dr. Tian Xia’s group on how environmental nanoparticles affect gene programs in liver cell types using 3D liver organoids and scRNAseq was accepted by Nano Today! Congratulations to the team and thank Dr. Graciel Diamante, Dr. In Sook Ahn, Darren Wijaya, Kavya Immadisetty for their contribution to the scRNAseq work!

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

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