Dean Jones/Young-Mi Go Lab

The Jones/Go lab’s research is focused on mechanisms of redox biology and their interactions with metabolism. We have also contributed to numerous areas of research through our use of high-throughput, untargeted metabolomic analyses in our own studies of environmental health and nutrition as well as collaborative research in many other areas of human health. For more information, please visit our research page.

Follow us on X/Twitter to keep up to date on research highlights and lab news @EmoryCbl. 

Jones/Go lab is also part of the Hercules Exposome Research Center. You can find more information here.

Redox Biology

We have contributed more than 100 peer-reviewed publications on thiol antioxidant systems dependent upon glutathione (GSH) and thioredoxins. Dr. Jones developed analytical methods for measuring GSH and GSH redox potentials in human plasma, and these methods are now widely used in clinical research to understand the role oxidative stress in human diseases. Our research has since spread to numerous topics within redox biology, including extracellular redox signaling, subcellular compartmentalization of redox states, and characterization of the redox proteome. We have also influenced conceptual thinking in the field, with contributions such as The Redox Code and The Redox Theory of Aging.

• Jones DP. 2002. Redox potential of GSH/GSSG couple: assay and biological significance. Methods Enzymol. 348:93-112. PMID: 11885298
• Go YM, Jones DP. (2017). Redox theory of aging: implications for health and disease. Clin Sci (Lond). 131(14):1669-1688. PMCID: PMC5773128.
• Go Y.-M., Jones D.P. (2008), Redox compartmentalization in eukaryotic cells. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1780: 1273-1290. PMID 18267127, PMCID; 2601570.
• Go, Y.-M., Jones D.P. (2011), Cysteine/cystine redox signaling in cardiovascular disease. Free Radic Biol Med. 50: 495-509. PMCID; 3040416.
• Go, Y.-M., Jones, D.P. (2013), The redox proteome. J Biol Chem. 288: 26512-26520. PMCID; 3772199.

Metabolomics

In the past decade, we have developed methodology for high-throughput chemical profiling with high resolution mass spectrometry. We have generated tools for pathway mapping, reliable quantification of chemicals, and network analysis. Recently, we have focused on efforts to harmonize our data in a cumulative database. We have used these methods for deep metabolic phenotyping in human research through collaborations with clinical investigators studying a broad spectrum of human diseases, including lung, cardiovascular, renal, liver, endocrine, neurologic, infectious disease and cancer.

• Uppal K, Walker DI, Liu K, Li S, Go YM, Jones DP. 2016. Computational metabolomics: a framework for the million metabolome. Chem Res Toxicol. 29: 1956-75. PMID: 27629808, PMCID: PMC5376098.
• Go YM, Fernandes J, Hu X, Uppal K, Jones DP. 2018 Mitochondrial network responses in oxidative physiology and disease. Free Radic Biol Med. 116:31-40. doi: 10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2018.01.005. Epub 2018 Jan 6. Review. PMID: 29317273.
• Walker DI, Perry-Walker K, Finnell RH, Pennell KD, Tran V, May RC, McElrath TF, Meador KJ, Pennell PB, Jones DP. Metabolome-wide association study of anti-epileptic drug treatment during pregnancy. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol. 2019, 363:122-130. doi: 10.1016/j.taap.2018.12.001. Epub 2018 Dec 4. PMID: 30521819
• Walker DI, Valvi D, Rothman N, Lan Q, Miller GW, Jones DP. 2019. The metabolome: A key measure for exposome research in epidemiology. Curr Epidemiol Rep. 6: 93-103. PMCID: PMC6905435.

Exposomics

In our early work with human metabolomics, it became clear that metabolomics data is rich in information about environmental exposures and metabolic responses to them. We have developed network approaches to understand the impacts of complex environmental exposures on biological systems, and we have developed experimental approaches to test and apply these network toxicology models to low-level environmental exposures. We maintain ongoing collaborations with epidemiologists and environmental health experts to study metabolic changes as they relate to environmental exposures on a systems level.

• Miller GW, Jones DP. The nature of nurture: refining the definition of the exposome. Toxicol Sci. 2014 Jan;137(1):1-2. doi: 10.1093/toxsci/kft251. PMID: 24213143; PMCID: 3871934
• Go Y, Uppal K, Jones DP. Mechanisms integrating lifelong exposure and health. In Oxidative Stress. 2020. Ed. Sies H. Academic Press. Chapter 21: 405-426.
• Jones DP, Cohn BA. A vision for exposome epidemiology: The pregnancy exposome in relation to breast cancer in the Child Health and Development Studies. Reprod Toxicol. 2020. 92: 4-10. PMCID: PMC7306421.

Metals Toxicology

Many past and present projects of the lab have been in the area of metals toxicology. We have previously investigated both cadmium and manganese as environmental stressors to study physiological changes and cellular responses using combined analyses of the metabolome, transcriptome, redox proteome, and redox systems. Currently, we are investigating sensitization to cadmium as a result of early life viral infection, the role of vanadium exposures in lung fibrosis, the role of prenatal heavy metal exposures on lung development, and the influence of dietary metal chelators on heavy metal exposures.

• Hu X., Fernandes J, Jones D.P. Go Y.-M. (2017), Cadmium stimulates myofibroblast differentiation and mouse lung fibrosis. Toxicol. 383: 50-56. PMCID: PMC5470547.
• Hu X, Lee KH, Lee Y, Fernandes J, Smith MR, Jung Y, Orr M, Kang SM, Jones DP, Go Y.-M. (2019), Environmental cadmium enhances lung injury by respiratory syncytial virus infection. Am J Pathol. 189: 1513-1525. PMCID: PMC6717913.
• Hu X, Chandler JD, Fernandes J, Orr ML, Hao L, Uppal K, Neujahr DC, Jones DP, Go YM. Selenium supplementation prevents metabolic and transcriptomic responses to cadmium in mouse lung. Biochim Biophys Acta Gen Subj. 2018. S0304-4165. PMCID: PMC6188826.
• He X, Jarrell ZR, Liang Y, Smith MR, Orr ML, Marts L, Go YM, Jones DP. Vanadium pentoxide induced oxidative stress and cellular senescence in human lung fibroblasts. Redox Biol. 2022. PMCID: 35870339.

Current Grant Support

• P30 ES019776 – Integrative Health Sciences Facility Core (NIEHS)
• R24 ES029490 – Maintenance and Enhancement of the Atlanta African American Maternal-Child Cohort: Exposome Profiling via High-resolution Metabolomics and Integration of Microbiome-Metabolome-Epigenome Data (NIEHS)
• R01 ES031980 – Cadmium-potentiated metabolic reprogramming in pathogenesis of lung fibrosis (NIEHS)
• R01 CA264519 – Discriminatory Mechanisms in Early-Onset and Lethal Prostate Cancer (NCI)
• RF1 NS130713-01 - Association of the in Utero Exposome with Life-Course Cognition and Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease in Midlife
• R21 AG080247-01A1 – Microbiome metabolite Valerobetaine: Mechanisms in Aging (NIA)

Graduate Students: 
Apply at Laney Graduate School here.
Degree programs we are associated with:

• Dean Jones – Molecular and Systems Pharmacology (GDBBS), Nutrition and Health Sciences  
• Young-Mi Go – Nutrition and Health Sciences 

Postdoctoral Trainees and Research Scientists: 
We are currently not accepting applications  

Dean P. Jones, PhD, is a professor of Medicine (Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine) and Biochemistry (Adjunct) at Emory and Director of the Clinical Biomarkers Laboratory. He received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana, in 1971 and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Oregon Health Sciences Univ., Portland, in 1976. He was a National Sciences Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, Ithaca, and a Visiting Scientist in Molecular Toxicology at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm prior to joining Emory in 1979. In 1997-98, he was a Nobel Fellow at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm. He has served in several leadership roles at Emory University, including Program Director of the PhD program in Nutrition Health Sciences, Core Laboratory Director of the Emory University General Clinical Research Center, Executive Committee of the Emory-Georgia Tech Predictive Health Institute, and has chaired several committees of Emory University and School of Medicine. 

Contact: 
404-727-5970
dpjones@emory.edu 
Whitehead Research Building (Room 205P)

Dr. Go is a professor in the Department of Medicine, Director of Experimental Metabolomics and Metallomics, and Associate Director of the Clinical Biomarkers Laboratory. Dr. Go received a B.S. in Biology from Korea University, Seoul, Korea, and a PhD in Pathology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Following postdoctoral training in biochemistry, Dr. Go joined the Department of Medicine as a faculty member in 2007. Dr. Go has a long-standing interest in environmental metal toxicity, redox metabolism, and molecular mechanisms in the lung associated with stimulating inflammation and developing pathological outcomes. Dr. Go had a lead role in developing redox proteomics and integrative omics data analysis, and has been directing the metabolomics team primarily focused on the research with cells and animals.

404-727-5984
ygo@emory.edu
Whitehead Research Building (Room 223)

Zack obtained a B.S.A. in biological sciences and M.A.T. in science education in 2016 from the University of Georgia, followed by his PhD in avian reproductive physiology from UGA in 2019. He joined the Jones/Go Lab in 2019 as a postdoctoral fellow and is now an instructor. He performs multiomics research on dietary phytochelatins and dietary and paternal heavy metal exposures.

Contact: 
404-727-5027
zjarrel@emory.edu 
Whitehead Biomedical Research Building (Room 211) 

Dr. Lee studied Agricultural Chemistry for undergraduate at Chonnam National University, Korea. He moved to the United States for his graduate study program at the University of Georgia and completed a PhD in Plant Biology in 2004. He joined in 2004 as a Postdoctoral Fellow in department of Pharmacology at Emory University School of Medicine. He then joined Dean Jones/Young-Mi Go’s Lab in the Department of Medicine in Aug 2022  

Contact: 
Office: 770-316-2542 
cmlee3@emory.edu
Whitehead Research Building (Room 225) 

Ho Young received his B.S. in Biology from High Point University in 2007, then went on to obtain his M.S. from University of North Carolina Greensboro in Biology with a focus on Molecular Toxicology. He obtained his Ph.D. in Toxicology in 2022 from North Carolina State University. He joined the Jones/Go lab in 2023 as a postdoctoral fellow with the interest of investigating metabolomic changes that occur in various lung diseases

Contact:
Office: 404-727-5091
ho.young.lee2@emory.edu
Whitehead Research Building, Room 225

ViLinh obtained a B.S. degree in 2007 at Georgia State University in Chemistry. She completed her M.S. degree in 2010 at University of Georgia in Chemistry with emphasis in analytical chemistry.  In 2011, ViLinh joined the Jones Lab to work as a mass spectrometrist where she prepares samples, troubleshoots the LC and Mass spec, and work on data analysis/extraction.  

Contact: 
404-727-5091
Vilinh.tran@emory.edu 
Whitehead Research Building (Room 225) 

Bill Liang, MS, is a Senior Research Specialist of Clinic Biomarkers Lab of Medicine Department of Emory University since January 2004. He is HPLC, Bio-Plex System machine and GCMS operator and expert on ELISA and d-ROMs. He has developed and introduced several methods to his lab such as Microplate d-ROMs, PON1 and TBARS. Recently, his study interesting in glutathione, GSH, and cysteine, CyS, redox in diagnosis and treatment of oxidative stress in aging and age-related disease; and Environmental Chemistry Science by using high-resolution Gas Chromatographic Mass Spectrums.  Build Environmental chemicals library and analysis results from biologic sample.    

Contact: 
404-727-5091
yliang@emory.edu 
Whitehead Research Building (Room 225)

Michael Orr has been with the Dean Jones lab for 20 years. He is the lab manager and a research specialist. He manages animal colonies, cell lines, lab safety and maintenance. Michael is responsible for all purchasing and inventory of the lab resources. Michael also prepares samples, operates, and maintains the ICP-MS.  

Contact: 
404-727-5091
mlorr@emory.edu 
Whitehead Research Building (Room 225)

Mary obtained her B.S. degree in Chemistry from Duke University in 1995.  She went on to obtain her PhD in 2001 in the Nutrition and Health Sciences Program of the Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Emory University. She joined the Jones Lab in 2019 and works with data analysis of metabolomics data from various projects.  

Contact: 
404-727-5091
mary.manning.nellis@emory.edu
Whitehead Research Building (Room 225)

Carolyn obtained a B.S. at the University of Connecticut, M.S. at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Ph.D. at Emory University.  She has been part of the Jones research laboratory for over 15 years with long-standing research interests in nutrition, metabolism, and redox mechanisms as predictors of health and disease. She focuses on integration of metabolomics and exposomics platforms addressing a range of human disease, nutrition, physical activity, pediatric medicine, cancer, and environmental exposures.    

Contact: 
carolyn.accardi@emory.edu 

Jaclyn received her B.S. in Biopsychology in 2017 from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. After college, she was an ORISE fellow at CDC for three years focused on analytical and synthetic chemistry. She joined the Jones Lab in 2021 as a part of the PhD in Molecular and Systems Pharmacology program at Emory. Her current projects involve applying mass spectrometry to clinical chemistry, metabolic disease, and xenobiotic metabolism. 

Contact: 
404-727-5091
jweinb9@emory.edu 
Whitehead Research Building (Room 225) 

Will obtained his B.S in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2020 and began his PhD in Molecular and Systems Pharmacology at Emory the same year. He joined Jones lab in 2021, where he is conducting research on liver and gut microbiome metabolism of natural products.  

Contact: 
404-727-5091
william.crandall@emory.edu  
Whitehead Research Building (Room 225) 

James received his BS in Nutrition and Dietetics from Purdue University’s Honor Program and an MS in Public Health Nutrition from Case Western Reserve University. James is currently engaged in his PhD research at the Jones/Go lab, where his focus is on computational metabolomics in Alzheimer’s disease research. With a long-term vision, James aspires to be a computational omics scientist, bridging interdisciplinary knowledge to elucidate disease mechanisms and foster drug discovery using AI and machine learning, ultimately promoting optimal human health

Contact:
Office: 404-727-5091
jzha832@emory.edu
Whitehead Research Building, Room 225

Contact:
404-727-5091
jennifer.jeon@emory.edu
Whitehead Biomedical Research Building (Room 225)

Josh received his BS in Biology from the University of Kentucky in 2018, completed the first three years of his MD at Emory SOM from 2019-2022, and is now pursuing his PhD in Nutrition and Health Sciences. His dissertation work is partnered between the Jones Lab and Dr. Rafael de Cabo's lab at the NIH National Institute on Aging IRP. Josh's research interests include aging, metabolism, nutritional interventions, adipose tissue biology, exposomics, women's health, cancer, and biomarker discovery. His clinical interests include endocrinology, type 2 diabetes, cardiometabolic disease, obesity, geriatrics, clinical & surgical nutrition, critical care, surgery, and trauma

Contact: 
Office: 404-727-5091
joshua.preston@emory.edu
Whitehead Research Building (Room 225) 

Contact:
404-727-5091
gahyun.lim@emory.edu
Whitehead Biomedical Research Building (Room 225)

Ryan received his B.Sc. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Mercer University in 2008, then went on to complete his M.Sc. from Georgia State University in Biology with a focus on Molecular Biology and Cellular Physiology.  He obtained his Ph.D. in Experimental Pathology in 2016 from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He completed his postdoctoral training in 2021 at Emory University under the mentorship of Drs Dean P. Jones and Young-Mi Go. His research focuses on using approaches in high-resolution metabolomics, high-resolution exposomics, nutritional and environmental element metal identification, mitochondrial bioenergetics, measurements of redox balance, and system biology to integrate these orthogonal datasets. 

Contact: 
404-321-6111 Ext 206143
matthew.ryan.smith@emory.edu | matthew.smith@va.gov 
VAMC 12C 173 Suite 2101 | Whitehead Building (Room 225)

Xin Hu obtained a B.E. degree in Environmental Science and Engineering at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. She received a PhD degree in Human Toxicology from University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA. She joined the Jones/Go lab in 2015 as a postdoctoral fellow and is now an Assistant Professor at Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. 

Contact: 
404-727-9979
Xin.hu2@emory.edu 
Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health
Rollins School of Public Health, CNR 7037

To view all publications from the Jones/Go lab, please click here.

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Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine 
Department of Medicine 

Whitehead Biomedical Research Building, Room 225 
615 Michael Street, Room 225 
Atlanta, GA 30322 
Lab phone: 404-727-5091 

Parking: Please park in visitor parking in the Michael Street Parking deck. There is a walkway from the 3rd floor of the parking deck to the Whitehead Building.