Project Title: Anti-Inflammatory Signaling of RNA-Binding Protein, Tristetraprolin, During Myocardial Infarction
Position: Postdoctoral Fellow
Institution: University of Hawaii at Manoa
Funding NIH Institute/Center: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Project ID: K99HL168433
Jonathan Yap, PhD, MS, was born and raised on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. As a native Hawaiian who’s culturally inclined to interact with the world around him, Dr. Yap spent much of his time outdoors, developing an interest in science at a very early age. He earned a BA in biology and an MS in physiology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. During his graduate work, he specialized in both cardiac pathophysiology and bioinformatics. His predoctoral research sought to elucidate the relationship between production of CHIT1 from pro-inflammatory macrophages and the progression of atherosclerosis. Dr. Yap went on to receive a doctorate from the University of Hawaii at Manoa John A. Burns School of Medicine. He’s currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Hawaii Center for Cardiovascular Research. There, he utilized spatial transcriptomics to begin characterizing a novel protein and its capacity to modulate inflammatory tissue damage during the early stages of myocardial infarction. As part of his commitment to promote native Hawaiian participation in science and health care-related fields, he’s a member of the Native Hawaiian STEM and Engineering Mentorship Program, which provides mentorship for native undergraduate students. Dr. Yap is also collaborating on a larger effort to design a research/health sciences summer module involving research and medical resources at his institution.