YU LAB MEMBERS

Jia-Ray received his PhD from a joint graduate program in Genetics at Stony Brook University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 2015. He conducted his thesis work on TGF-β and small GTPase signaling in lung cancer metastasis at CSHL under Dr. Linda Van Aelst. He then pursued his postdoctoral training in chromatin biology with Dr. Danny Reinberg at Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and NYU Grossman School of Medicine. He started his independent research group in 2021 and his lab is interested in mechanisms-based inquiries in cancer and developmental epigenetics and leveraging basic science for translational applications.

Chih-Han (Jeff) received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Oklahoma in 2025. His graduate work focused on functional analysis of bacterial toxins and anti-toxins. In Yu lab, Jeff is investigating structure-function regulations of mammalian histone methyltransferases and developing new pharmacological approaches to tackle these enzymes in human pathogentic conditions.

Jeff's publication from Yu Lab:

Tu et al, Epigenetics Reports (2025) (under review)

Chen-I received his M.S. in Clinical Medicine from National Cheng-Kung University in 2018, where he studied disease mechanisms of polycystic ovary syndrome. He joined Yu  lab as a technician in 2022 and became a PhD student in 2023. He is interested in understanding how the active chromatin state is established in early stem cell differentiation. He is currently investigating the mechanisms of chromatin inheritance using a dTAG protein degron system. 

Chen-I's publications from Yu Lab:

Hsu et al, STAR Protocols (2025)

Hsu et al, Cell Reports (2025)

Bin received his PhD in Cell Biology from Shanghai Jiao Tung University in China in 2021, where he studies how protein SUMOylation regulates mitosis. Prior to joining Yu lab in 2025, he was a postdoc in Baylor College of Medicine where he studied non-histone substrates of NSD3 and SETD2 that regulate early neural differentiation. In Yu Lab, Bin is intersted in the role of human SPIN4 mutations in developmental disorders.

Brian received his B.Sc. in Biochemistry from Grove City College  in 2018. Prior to joining Yu lab, he worked at Qiagen in Fredrick, MD as a technician for NGS pipelines. He joined the Yu Lab to investigate non-histone substrates of PRC2 and how they regulate stem cell differentiation.