Yang Pan
University of Illinois Chicago, IL·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
Alzheimer's disease causes about 70% of dementia cases, yet there are no effective treatments and few tools for early diagnosis. Prevention may work best in midlife, long before symptoms appear, so researchers need simple early warning signs measurable in blood.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Neuroscience
Genetics
- Topics
Alzheimer's disease
dementia
mitochondrial DNA
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2028
What they work on
- Test whether mitochondrial DNA copy number and heteroplasmy (mutation load), measured in blood at two midlife time points, predict cognitive decline in Bogalusa Heart Study participants, with validation in the TOPMed cohort.
- Examine how midlife mtDNA changes relate over time to early Alzheimer's-related brain changes seen on MRI and PET scans in a 700-person Bogalusa subsample.
- Assess whether cardiovascular risk factors measured from childhood onward predict later mtDNA changes, and whether mtDNA changes partly explain the link between childhood heart-disease risk and midlife brain health.
More about the research
Mitochondria, the cell's energy producers, are especially important for an energy-hungry organ like the brain. They carry their own DNA (mtDNA). Two blood-based features of that DNA have been linked to Alzheimer's in older adults. The first is copy number (mtDNA-CN), how many copies cells carry, which reflects mitochondrial function. The second is heteroplasmy (mtDNA-Het), the load of mutations. Whether these markers matter in midlife, and how they connect heart health to brain health, is not known.
Why it matters
Dementia lacks effective treatments and early diagnostic tools. Blood-based mitochondrial DNA markers measured in midlife could help identify people at higher risk of Alzheimer's disease earlier, when prevention may work best. Linking childhood heart-disease risk factors to mitochondrial dysfunction may also suggest targeted prevention strategies. The results could inform risk stratification, broader dementia-prevention efforts and drug development.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Richard MacLehose
Tulane University of Louisiana, LA·Public Health & Epidemiology
Measure brain structure, brain function, cognition and blood-based markers related to Alzheimer's disease in adults aged 40–55 from the Bogalusa, NGHS and Princeton lipid cohorts.
Tanika Kelly
University of Illinois Chicago, IL·Public Health & Epidemiology
Recruit 300 diverse adults with and without diabetic kidney disease and collect blood and environmental exposure data, such as metals and social conditions, every year for three years.
Willard Freeman
University of Oklahoma-Health Sciences Center, OK·Genetics
Perform quantitatively precise analyses of DNA modifications, methylation and hydroxymethylation, from genome-wide to gene-specific scale for aging studies, including whole-genome epigenomic profiling by nanopore sequencing.
The school
University of Illinois Chicago: 42 labs on PI Pages, $532M a year on research, 359 research doctorates a year.
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