Our Medical & Scientific Advisory Committee
The Care4ASH1L Medical and Scientific Advisory Board (MSAB) guides Care4ASH1L’s research activities. The MSAB is comprised of leaders in ASH1L related disorders research and clinical practice who have made significant contributions to advancing their respective fields. MSAB members will be committed to furthering Care4ASH1L’s mission of eliminating the challenges of ASH1L related disorders through research, awareness, and support. The MSAB seeks out the most innovative and promising research projects related to ASH1L associated disorders for support, and it identifies medical issues and treatment implementation.
The purpose of the Care4ASH1L MSAB is -
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To provide expertise regarding key medical and clinical issues related to the conditions associated with ASH1L-related disorders.
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To provide insights on the needs of ASH1L related disorder’s population
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To offer expertise on scientific developments.
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To assure that Care4ASH1L’s policies, research funding, grants, marketing, communications and publications meet the highest standards of scientific rigor and accuracy.
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To guide Care4ASH1L’s initiatives that promote new developments in diagnosis, treatment, care, and biomedical research on a global level.
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To provide proper guidance to the Board of Directors (BoD) of Care4ASH1L towards the development of a Global Natural History patient Registry for ASH1L related disorders including guidance over adherence of rules and regulation surrounding the Registry.
Meet our Medical & Scientific Advisory Board Team Members
DR. JIN HE
Michigan State University
Dr. Jin He is an assistant professor at Michigan State University, and his research focuses on epigenetic mechanisms in autism spectrum disorder and other neurodevelopmental diseases. His lab specifically utilizes biochemical assays, cell-based analysis, animal models, transcriptome analysis and epigenome analysis to understand the epigenetic mechanisms in pathogenesis of autism and other neurodevelopmenta; disease at the molecular, cellular and organismal levels. He has established a autism mouse model caused by deletion of a high risk gene, ASH1L, in the mouse brain. His long term goal is to utilize the knowledge revealed by the mbasic mechanistic studies to develop effective epigenetics-based therapies to treat autism and other neurodevelopmental diseases.
DR. GREG WANG
University of North Carolina
Dr. Greg Wang is currently Associate Professor and Head of a research laboratory at Dept of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Dept of Pharmacology, and Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, UNC at Chape Hill. He runs a research laboratory focused on epigentics and chromatin biology. Dr. Wang has been recently recognized with a prestigious Young Investigator Award of American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) and Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement from UNC.
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Dr. Greg Wang received a number of awards and honors including the 2022 Young Investigator Award from American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB); the Yang Family Biomedical Scholar of UNC School of Medicine; the 2019 Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement fro, UNC; the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) Scholar; American Cancer Society (ACS) Research Scholar; the Janet D. Rowley Medical Research Award of Gabrielle's Angel Foundation for Cancer Researchr; the Kimmel Scholar, Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research; the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Scholar in Basic Science; the Martin D. Abeloff M.D. V Scholar of V Foundation for Cancer Research
DR.SOFIA LIZARRAGA
Brown University
Dr. Sofia B. Lizarraga is originally from Peru. She received her PhD from The Johns Hopkins University studying the assembly of the mitotic spindle with Dr. Yixian Zheng. She became fascinated with the role of the cytoskeleton in neuronal development and did her postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School with Dr. Christopher A. Walsh. She continued her work in neurodevelopmental disorders with a focus on autism at Brown University as an investigator with Dr. Eric M. Morrow. In her own lab at University of South Carolina she is focusing on chromatin and transcriptional regulatory mechanisms in ASH1L-related disease.
DR. JUDY LIU
Brown University
Dr. Judy Liu is a practicing neurologist with a research interest in epilepsy and neural developmental disorders. Her laboratory studies a common cause of epilepsy, focal cortical dysplasia, as well as, rare genetic epilepsies. The Liu lab uses molecular biology techniques and electrophysiology to understand how seizures arise. She has been funded by the NIH, Epilepsy Foundation, Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE), and the TESS foundation.
Dr. Judy Liu grew up outside of Philadelphia and went to Yale University for her undergraduate studies where she majored in Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics. She was accepted into the Medical Scientist Training Program of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University with her dissertation work in neuro-immunology. After earning both the MD and PhD, she completed an internship in internal medicine and residency in neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Harvard Medical School affiliate. She was chief resident during the final year. After residency, she embarked on a post-doctoral fellowship in neural development and cell biology (where she first met Eric Morrow). She started her laboratory at Children’s National Medical Center/ George Washington University. In 2017, her laboratory moved to Brown University where she continues both her research and clinical work.
DR. YUEN GAO
Michigan State University
Dr. Yuen Gao is a Research Associate at Michigan State University. His work demonstrated that deleting ASH1L in mouse brain is sufficient to induce ASD/ID-like behavioral and cognitive deficits, thus establish the causality between disrupt ASH1L mutations and ASD genesis. This is the first ASD mouse model by deletion of a covalent histone modifying enzyme with the highest ASD risk. The animal model Dr. Gao established make a great contribution to the autism research to further explore the underlying mechanisms of ASD pathogenesis. Using this new ASD/ID mouse model, Dr. Gao discovered that postnatal administration of vorinostat (SAHA), a histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDACi), significantly ameliorated both ASD-like behavioral and ID-like cognitive memory deficits. Spectrum News of Simmons Foundation reported Dr. Gao's work
titled “Cancer drug alters autism-like traits in mice”. His discovery provides a new drug target for the development of new pharmacological treatment of autisms and other neurodevelopmental diseases.