Yeo Lab

Degrees

B.A, Biology and Chemistry, Transylvania University, Lexington, KY, 2010
PhD, Biological Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 2017

Summary

Josh graduated magna cum laude with majors in Biology and Chemistry from Transylvania University. As an undergraduate student at a small liberal arts school, Josh supplemented his academic training with summer biomedical research projects at the University of Cincinnati, Brown University, and Stanford University, where he studied tissue-specific gene expression, electrophysiological properties of ion channels, and neuronal differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Upon graduation, Josh enrolled in the Biochemistry, Cellular, and Molecular Biology graduate program at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to study the regulation of neuronal gene expression. As a National Science Foundation (NSF) graduate research fellow, Josh studied how the evolutionarily conserved Let-7 family of miRNAs regulate neuronal growth and synaptic plasticity. Answering this question led him to the laboratory of Narry Kim at Seoul National University in Korea, where Josh, funded by NSF’s Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide program, learned to perform next generation sequencing with TAIL-seq to determine if genes targeted by Let-7 miRNA are differentially polyadenylated or “tailed” in response to stimulation by brain-derived neuronal growth factor. Now, as a member of Gene Yeo’s lab, Josh is continuing to investigate the cellular and molecular basis of brain development, focusing on controls of neuronal protein synthesis in health and diseases like autism spectrum disorders.

Publications

Schwartz JL, Jones KL, Yeo GW. 2020. Repeat RNA expansion disorders of the nervous system: post-transcriptional mechanisms and therapeutic strategies. Critical Reviews in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Luo EC, Nathanson JL, Tan FE, Schwartz JL, Schmok JC, Shankar A, Markmiller S, Yee BA, Sathe S, Pratt GA, Scaletta DB, Ha Y, Hill DE, Aigner S, Yeo GW. 2020. Large-scale tethered function assays identify factors that regulate mRNA stability and translation. Nature Structural and Molecular Biology.

Subramanian M, Timmerman CK, Schwartz JL, Pham DL, and Meffert MK. 2015. Characterizing autism spectrum disorders by key biochemical pathways. Front. Neurosci. 9:313.