Yanming Li
Baylor College of Medicine, TX·Genetics
Thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections (TAAD) are life-threatening diseases. The aorta, the body's main artery, either balloons outward or tears, and treatment options are limited.
- Fields
Genetics
Medicine & Clinical Research
Computer Science
- Topics
thoracic aortic aneurysm
aortic dissection
genome-wide association study
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Identify the aortic cell types in which TAAD-associated SNPs act, by integrating GWAS results with single-cell ATAC-seq maps of accessible chromatin from human aortic tissue.
- Test whether risk alleles alter transcription factor binding and histone modifications at SNP-containing regulatory regions, using integrative analyses of GWAS and CUT&RUN sequencing data.
- Determine the direct target genes of TAAD risk SNPs in specific aortic cells through allele-specific analyses combining whole-genome sequencing, scATAC-seq and single-cell RNA-seq.
More about the research
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS), which scan many people's DNA for variants linked to disease, have found single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), single-letter DNA differences, tied to TAAD in people without an inherited syndrome. How these SNPs actually raise disease risk is unclear. Many of them sit in regions of the genome that do not code for proteins but may control when nearby genes turn on.
Why it matters
Patients with thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections currently have few treatment options. By showing how inherited DNA variants disrupt gene control in specific aortic cells, this work could reveal new diagnostic markers for identifying people at risk. It could also identify new targets for therapies aimed at preventing aortic aneurysm and dissection.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Dogukan Mizrak
University of Michigan, MI·Medicine & Clinical Research
Define the molecular triggers and downstream effects of CART signaling in human aortic smooth muscle cells in vitro, testing whether it drives wall remodeling and medial calcification, mineral buildup that stiffens the artery.
Ritambhara Singh
Brown University, RI·Computer Science·Early-career
Predict gene expression by integrating histone modification profiles, 3D genome conformation, DNA sequence and single-nucleotide polymorphisms in deep learning models, including graph neural networks that treat genome folding as a network of contacts between distant DNA regions.
Henry Kranzler
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Genetics
Map alcohol-linked GWAS variants to the genes they control by combining ATAC-seq (open DNA maps) and Capture C (maps of DNA looping) data from iPSC-derived cortical, dopaminergic and other neurons.
The school
Baylor College of Medicine: 38 labs on PI Pages, $881M a year on research, 115 research doctorates a year.
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