Yvette Yien
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Biochemistry
Developing red blood cells make huge amounts of heme, the iron-containing molecule that lets hemoglobin carry oxygen. They must match heme production to iron uptake and hemoglobin assembly.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Biology
Genetics
- Topics
heme synthesis
iron metabolism
erythropoiesis
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Determine how the mitochondrial unfoldase CLPX regulates PPOX and FECH, the final two enzymes of heme synthesis, in differentiating red blood cells.
- Identify the mechanisms by which CLPX controls mitochondrial iron metabolism, testing whether it couples iron supply to the terminal steps of porphyrin synthesis.
- Test how iron status modifies disease caused by mutations in the CLPX gene, to learn whether adjusting iron could treat specific heme and iron disorders.
- Characterize biochemically how a ubiquitous AAA+ protein unfoldase takes on red-cell-specific functions during erythropoiesis, the process of making red blood cells.
More about the research
When that balance fails, toxic heme precursors accumulate or heme runs short, producing anemia, iron overload, and porphyria, a group of disorders caused by buildup of heme precursors.
Why it matters
Defects in heme synthesis cause anemias, porphyrias and mitochondrial diseases. Showing how CLPX links heme production to iron handling could reveal whether manipulating iron status helps treat specific iron and heme disorders. Because women and children make up a disproportionate share of anemia patients, they could particularly benefit.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Elizabeth Leibold
University of Utah, UT·Biochemistry
Determine whether loss of Irp2 serine 157 phosphorylation disrupts red blood cell production from within blood-forming cells, using bone marrow transplantation and flow cytometry of cell cycle, proliferation and iron.
Robert J Desnick
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine the safety of oral ciclopirox olamine, a repurposed antifungal acting as a pharmacologic chaperone, in adults with CEP, using an N-of-1 phase 1/2 trial with a six-month run-in and escalating doses of 2 then 4 mg/kg.
James Collins
University of Florida, FL·Physiology
Test whether high blood iron in Th3/+ mouse mothers, a β-thalassemia model, loads fetuses with iron and causes oxidative stress that damages developing tissues and leads to disease after birth.
The school
University of Pittsburgh: 83 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 403 research doctorates a year.
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