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Young’s approach to understanding the language of the genome is to focus on gene regulators proteins that bind to DNA and aid in the control of gene expression. By combing the entire genome and discovering the locations of these regulators, researchers can learn more about how genes and proteins communicate with each other. Young believes that this sort of knowledge will provide unprecedented insight into the biology of many diseases such as cancer and diabetes [ future of biology 220 kbps QuickTime].
Teaming up with MIT computer scientist David Gifford, Young has developed a suite of tools that not only sift through the entire genome to locate these gene regulators, but then interpret how these molecules interact.
In 2002, Young reported on locating every gene regulator in the yeast genome. In 2004, his lab achieved a similar result for the human genome. Here, a group in Young’s lab acquired human pancreatic and liver tissue and identified the locations of a series of key gene regulators associated with type 2 diabetes. And in 2005, Young applied this technology to human embryonic stem cells where he identified the locations of the key regulators responsible for giving these cells their unique attributes. Never before has a human embryonic stem cell been studied at such a level of resolution. Young is also working on locating gene regulators involved with certain types of cancer, and ultimately he plans on locating all gene regulators that are known to be associated with disease.
In his earlier work with genome-surveying technologies, Young had discovered an immune system protein that may play a previously unsuspected role in quelling the spread of tuberculosis infection. Additionally, Young has done extensive work in vaccine development, such as identifying particular heat shock proteins (HSPs) that could potentially be administered to immunocompromised patients. For example, working with mice he found that HSPs from the tuberculosis bacterium could elicit powerful immune responses and could act as immune system boosters. The special properties of HSP proteins have prompted researchers to investigate whether they could be fused with bacterial or viral proteins of interest to elicit specific immune responses.
Young received his PhD from Yale University in 1975, and became a Whitehead Member in 1984. He has served on the Tropical Disease Research Steering Committee for the World Health Organization, and from 1988 to 1993 served on the AIDS and Related Research Study Section for the National Institutes of Health.
Selected Publications
Boyer, L.A., Lee, T.I., Cole, M.F., Johnstone, S.E., Levine, S.S., Zucker, J.P., Guenther, M.G., Kumar, R.M., Murray, H.L., Jenner, R.G., Gifford, D.K., Melton, D.A., Jaenisch, R., Young, R.A. (2005) Core Transcriptional Regulatory Circuitry in Human Embryonic Stem Cells. Cell Vol 122, 947-956.
Odom DT, Zizlsperger N, Gordon DB, Bell GW, Rinaldi NJ, Murray HL, Volkert TL, Schreiber J, Rolfe PA, Gifford DK, Fraenkel E, Bell GI, Young RA. (2004).Control of pancreas and liver gene expression by HNF transcription factors. Science Feb 27;303(5662):1378-81.
Lee, TI, Rinaldi, NJ, Robert, F, Odom, DT, Bar-Joseph, Z, Gerber, GK, Hannett, NM, Harbison, CT, Thompson, CM, Simon, I, Zeitlinger, J, Jennings, EG, Murray, HL, Gordon, DB, Ren, B, Wyrick, JJ, Tagne, JB, Volkert, TL, Fraenkel, E, Gifford, DK, Young, R.A. (2002). Transcriptional regulatory networks in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Science 298: 799-804.
Huang, Q, Liu, D, Majewski, P, Schulte, LC, Korn, JM, Young, RA, Lander, ES, Hacohen, N. (2001). The plasticity of dendritic cell responses to pathogens and their components. Science 294: 870-875.
Ren, B, Robert, F, Wyrick, JJ, Aparicio, O, Jennings, EG, Simon, I, Zeitlinger, J, Schreiber, J, Hannett, N, Kanin, E, Volkert, TL, Wilson, C, Bell, SP, Young, RA. (2000). Genome-wide location and function of DNA-binding proteins. Science 290: 2306-2309.
Wyrick, JJ, Holstege, FCP, Jennings, EG, Causton, H, Shore, D, Grunstein, M., Lander, ES, Young, RA. (1999). Chromosomal landscape of nucleosome-dependent gene expression and silencing in yeast. Nature 402: 418-421.
Holstege, FCP, Jennings, EG, Wyrick, JJ, Lee, TI, Hengartner, CJ, Green, MR, Golub, TS, Lander, ER, Young, RA. (1998).Dissecting the regulatory circuitry of a eukaryotic genome. Cell 95: 717-728. |
