Jun Yang

DAVIS -- Analytical chemist Jun Yang, a postdoctoral researcher in the Bruce Hammock lab at the University of California, Davis, and the UC Davis Cancer Center, has just received a one-year, $40,000 Elizabeth Nash Memorial Fellowship for cystic fibrosis research.

The award, from Cystic Fibrosis Research Inc. (CFRI), headquartered in Mountain View, is the only Elizabeth Nash Memorial Fellowship awarded this year to a UC Davis researcher and one of only four such awards nationally.

Yang's research will focus on whether a novel therapeutic compound discovered by Hammock can be used to influence and manage severe respiratory tract inflammatory processes in cystic fibrosis.

“This is a very competitive award,” said Hammock, a distinguished entomology professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology with a joint appointment with the UC Davis Cancer Center. “Jun Yang is a very talented scientist in a wonderful position to evaluate if the new field of metabolomics can be used for cystic fibrosis,” he continued. Metabolomics involves the study of metabolic products of cells, which scientists use to distinguish a diseased state from a healthy state.

The compound being studied is a soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) inhibitor, which the scientists believe can control or decrease harmful airway overly-exuberant inflammatory processes.

Clinician scientists Carroll Cross, Brian Morrissey and Nick Stollenwerk of the UC Davis Adult Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Program will coordinate clinical aspects of the project. Basic scientists Jason Eiserich and Vihas Vasu will help with the basic science aspects of the CF-related investigative work.

“Effective anti-inflammatory strategies have been long sought after in the CF care community,” said Cross, professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine, Department of Internal Medicine. “Approaches being studied by Dr. Yang and his mentor Dr. Hammock are both innovative and exciting potential approaches toward this vexing problem.”

Said Yang: “In this study, we're going to test if the metabolomics technique is a good efficacy indicator for anti-inflammatory therapies and test if sEH is involved in the inflammation processes of cystic fibrosis respiratory tract pathobiology.”

His research is titled, "A New Therapeutic Strategy Focusing on Anti-inflammatory Therapies for Cystic Fibrosis-Related Lung Disease: Preliminary Data Toward Consideration of Therapy with Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase Inhibitor (sEHI).”

Yang will discuss his proposed work Aug. 1 at the 22nd annual National Cystic Fibrosis Family Education Conference, set for July 31-Aug. 2 in Redwood City. The event, sponsored by CFRI, is themed “The Power of New Possibilities: Growing Strong and Living Longer With Cystic Fibrosis.”

Yang received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Wuhan (China) University and his doctorate in analytical chemistry from the Dalian (China) Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academic of Sciences. He joined the Hammock lab and the UC Davis Cancer Center as a postdoctoral scholar in 2006.

Yang recently contributed to the writing of a successful proposal for a three-year $750,000 grant funded by the American Asthma Foundation. Hammock serves as the principal investigator and UC Davis Medical Center asthma specialist Nicholas Kenyon as the co-investigator. They are investigating whether sEHI will work on asthma, a chronic disease affecting 300 million people worldwide, including 23 million Americans.

Cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening genetic disease that ravages the lungs and digestive system, is the most common, fatal hereditary disease in the United States. It affects some 30,000 children and adults in the United States and 70,000 worldwide. One in 3,900 American children is born with CF and approximately 1,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, according to CFRI. Ten million Americans are symptomless carriers of one of the CF genes. In the 1950s, few children with CF lived to attend elementary school. Today, even with advances in research and medical treatments, only half of those with CF survive to the late 30s.

CFRI, a non-profit organization founded in 1975, exists to fund research, to provide educational and personal support and to spread awareness of cystic fibrosis. Since its founding, CFRI has funded more than $7.5 million in CF research projects. The Web site is at www.cfri.org/home.html.