Yan chosen for Burroughs Wellcome Foundation award
By Deborah Wormser
The Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) has selected Dr. Nan Yan, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and of Microbiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, as one of its 2015 Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases.
Each year, only 10 early-career scientists are selected for these highly competitive national awards. The BWF, an independent private foundation dedicated to advancing the biomedical sciences, provides its selected Investigators research funding of $500,000 over five years.
The award will enable Dr. Yan to expand his research program on the pathogenesis of viral and autoimmune diseases to the development of bacterial infection with an emphasis on two bacteria – Listeria and Shigella – responsible for food-borne illnesses.
Since joining the UT Southwestern faculty in 2011, Dr. Yan has published studies identifying molecular mechanisms that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, uses to avoid detection by the innate immune system, the body’s first line of defense. He also has studied autoimmune diseases such as lupus and a rare autoimmune disease that affects the brain and presents with symptoms that resemble those of viral infection.
“I thank the Burroughs Wellcome Fund for this award, which represents a tremendous opportunity to explore important new directions in our research. We are excited to expand into the study of bacterial pathogenesis,” said Dr. Yan, who added that the research could lead to new ways to fight bacterial infection or to new treatments for autoimmune disease.
“In addition, I thank my faculty mentors – Drs. Beth Levine, Michael Norgard, Edward Wakeland, and James Chen – as well as UT Southwestern’s previous BWF awardees – Drs. Neal Alto, Julie Pfeiffer, Lora Hooper, and Felix Yarovinsky – for their generous help,” Dr. Yan said.
“Dr. Yan is a wonderful investigator and educator, as demonstrated by his selection for this honor. His earlier research in virology has advanced our knowledge of how HIV establishes chronic infection by evading the innate immune system, and we look forward to his future findings,” said Dr. Carlos Girod, Vice Chairman of Internal Medicine, and Interim Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Yan, who grew up in a small town in China, completed his undergraduate work in microbiology at Fudan University in Shanghai. He earned his doctorate in molecular biology at UT Austin, working with Dr. Paul Macdonald. Dr. Yan completed postdoctoral work in molecular medicine at Harvard Medical School under Dr. Judy Lieberman and came to UT Southwestern as an Endowed Scholar in 2011.
Dr. Yan’s previous honors include a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Career Development Award.
The BWF also announced a Postdoctoral Enrichment Program (PDEP) award to Dr. Tamia Alisha Harris-Tryon, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Lora Hooper’s laboratory in the Department of Immunology, for her study “Microbiota-immune system interactions in the skin.” She also serves as an assistant instructor in the Department of Dermatology.
The PDEP award provides a total of $60,000 from the BWF over three years to support the career development activities for underrepresented minority postdoctoral fellows in a degree-granting institution in the U.S. or Canada “whose training and professional development are guided by mentors committed to helping them advance to stellar careers in biomedical or medical research,” according to the Fund.
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Dr. Alto, Associate Professor of Microbiology, is a Rita C. and William P. Clements, Jr. Scholar in Medical Research.
Dr. Chen, Professor of Molecular Biology and in the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense, holds the George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science.
Dr. Girod holds the Ron Anderson, M.D. Professorship in Clinical Care and Education at Parkland Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Hooper, Professor of Immunology and of Microbiology and in the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense, holds the Jonathan W. Uhr, M.D. Distinguished Chair in Immunology and is a Nancy Cain and Jeffrey A. Marcus Scholar in Medical Research, in Honor of Dr. Bill S. Vowell.
Dr. Levine, Director of the Center for Autophagy Research and Professor of Internal Medicine and of Microbiology, holds the Charles Cameron Sprague Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science.
Dr. Norgard, Chairman of Microbiology, holds the B.B. Owen Distinguished Chair in Molecular Research.
Dr. Pfeiffer is an Associate Professor of Microbiology.
Dr. Wakeland, Chairman of Immunology, holds the Edwin L. Cox Distinguished Chair in Immunology and Genetics.
Dr. Yan is the Rita C. and William P. Clements, Jr. Scholar in Medical Research.
Dr. Yarovinky, Associate Professor of Immunology, is a Nancy Cain and Jeffrey A. Marcus Scholar in Medical Research, in Honor of Dr. Bill S. Vowell.
