Genomics researcher named among handful at top of field

Xudong Yao, an assistant professor of chemistry in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is being honored by Genome Technology magazine as one of the world’s 30 top young investigators in the field of genomics and related sciences.

Yao, 43, was selected for innovative use of mass spectrometry in studying proteins associated with cystic fibrosis and cellular signal communication.

The mass spectrometer – an instrument costing more than $500,000 – uses magnets and electrical fields to reveal distinct proteins in cellular material.

His work can be seen as the next step beyond the Human Genome Project, which cataloged all the genes in the human body. One of the achievements of that project was the discovery of particular genes that contribute to certain diseases, including cancer, a disease that also figures in Yao’s work.

Protein interactions
Yao’s science is called proteomics, a combination of the terms “protein” and “genomics.” It relates to the cataloguing of proteins in human cells and the study of how they interact and the impact those interactions have on human health.

The title of a 2001 conference on proteomics, “Human Proteome Project: Genes Were Easy,” underscores the challenge being undertaken by Yao and his colleagues. If the genome consists of 40,000 genes, the proteome is far harder to quantify and understand because cells modify proteins constantly, and a typical cell may make hundreds of thousands of identifiable proteins.

It is in this arena that Yao pursues proteins that may trigger two of the world’s dreaded diseases. His success may ultimately lead to new and more effective drugs.

His postdoctoral adviser at the University of Maryland, Catherine Fenselau, explains proteomics like this: “Proteomics is the post-genomic science that examines many proteins at once to tell us how the genome’s blueprint is being implemented in cell biology. In addition to increasing our fundamental understanding of cellular function, we expect to recognize changes in proteins that provide semaphores for diseases and for responses to therapeutics. Rapid and sensitive characterization of such protein biomarkers will augment traditional medical diagnostics and pathology.”

She adds, “Professor Yao is one of the most outstanding young scientists currently contributing new methods to the new frontier of proteomics. He brings to his UConn students experience in a proteomic start-up company, experience in a mid-sized biotechnology company, [and] great energy and skill in laboratory research.”

To decipher the content and message of a single cell, Yao works at the molecular level. He inserts a tiny amount of a protein material from both healthy and diseased people into the mass spectrometry instrument, a box that includes a vacuum chamber, electrical charges, and the ability to cause the material being investigated to become a gas.

Once converted and charged, the material is weighed as part of the identification process, difficult though the concept of weighing something invisible to the naked eye may be.