Lab Team | Emory School of Medicine

Principal Investigator

David S. Yu, MD, PhD

Jerome Landry MD Chair in Cancer Research and Associate Professor
Department of Radiation Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine

Georgia Research Alliance Cancer Scientist

Faculty Profile

Dr. Yu is a physician-scientist who is actively engaged in basic, translational, and clinical research.

Yu Lab Team

Yasmin Castelán Undergraduate Student

Yu Lab member: June 2022 - present

Hometown: Austin, Texas

Education: Attending Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Research: Investigating how the acetylation status of sirtuin substrates is associated with response and outcome in TNBC patients.

Mark Essien Laboratory Assistant

Yu Lab member: June 2023 - present

Hometown: Douglasville, GA

Education: BS Chemistry, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Research interest: Studying the role of proteins and genes involved in DNA double strand break repair.

Ramona Haji-Seyed-Javadi Graduate Student, Genetics and Molecular Biology Program

Yu Lab member: June 2019 - present

Hometown: Tehran, Iran

Education: BS and MS, Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Tehran - MS, Molecular Integrative Physiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois

Research: Understanding the role of novel proteins in the DNA damage response.

Lydia Hu Undergraduate Student

Yu Lab member: May 2023 - present

Hometown: Beijing, China

Education: Attending Emory University

Research: Investigating proteins related to DNA damage response and their mechanisms in DNA double strand break repair.

Jinmeng Jiang Undergraduate Student

Priya Kapoor, PhD Instructor, Department of Radiation Oncology

Yu Lab member: January 2019 - present

Hometown: Toronto, Canada

Education: PhD, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Research: Evaluating the role of post-translational protein modifications, specifically lysine acetylation, on the regulation of the DNA repair functions of SAMHD1, which is a potential therapeutic target for cancer therapy.

Sandip Kumar Rath, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow

Yu Lab member: August 2020 - present

Hometown: India

Education: PhD, George August Universität, Göttingen, Germany

Research: Investigating the role of sirtuins in replication stress response in cancer models.

Nho Cong Luong Postdoctoral Fellow

Yu Lab member: September 2022 - present

Hometown: Phu Yen, Vietnam

Education: PhD in Biomedical Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Japan

Research: Investigating the involvement of post-translational modification regulated by Sirtuins in DNA damage response

Fatmata Sesay, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow

Yu Lab member: September 2022 - present

Hometown: Liberia, West Africa

Education: PhD in Cancer and Molecular Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia

Research: Investigating the role novel genes in DNA double strand break repair and the impact of their dysregulation in cancer development.

Boying Shadow Song Laboratory Assistant

Yu Lab member: December 2021 - present

Hometown: Shenzen, China

Education: BS, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Research interest: Studying potential DNA damage response proteins and their roles in DSB repair.