Young-Mi Go Kang
Emory University, GA·Pharmacology
Cadmium, a toxic metal found in food and the environment, builds up in the body with age because humans cannot remove it efficiently. Lung fibrosis, the stiffening and scarring of lung tissue, is a serious disease with unclear triggers.
- Fields
Pharmacology
Biochemistry
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
cadmium
heavy metal toxicity
environmental exposure
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Determine whether cadmium enhances RSV-induced protein S-palmitoylation, the attachment of fatty acids to proteins, by changing the activity of zDHHC11 and acyl protein thioesterase in mice and lung cells.
- Examine the role of mTORC1, a master regulator of cell growth, in cadmium-enhanced fibrosis pathways using mouse and cultured lung cell models with controlled cadmium dosing.
- Test whether lung cadmium burden drives fibrosis after RSV infection through mitochondrial damage and mTORC1 activation, using pathology and integrated omics network analysis in mice.
More about the research
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a common cause of infant lung infections, is another possible contributor. This project asks whether low, diet-level cadmium in the lung combines with earlier RSV infection to push lungs toward fibrosis.
Why it matters
Lung diseases are among the leading causes of illness and death. Most people are exposed to small amounts of cadmium through their diet, and many have had RSV as infants. Showing whether these exposures combine to promote fibrosis could identify mTORC1 and protein palmitoylation as targets for reducing lung damage. It could also inform efforts to limit environmental cadmium exposure. The work will also provide a mouse model for studying how low-level exposures interact in lung disease.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Suresh Cuddapah
New York University, NY·Genetics
Map how nickel exposure changes where Sp1, a transcription-activating protein, binds across the genome, and characterize the accompanying shifts in the epigenomic landscape of chromatin marks.
Antonius Oomens
Oklahoma State University, OK·Microbiology & Immunology
Build live single-cycle RSV vaccines that produce abundant viral antigen but cannot spread cell to cell, and therefore cannot revert to virulence even when immunity is suboptimal.
Beiyun Zhou
University of Southern California, CA·Physiology
Identify how loss of the endoplasmic reticulum chaperone GRP78 disturbs mitochondrial energy production and biosynthesis in alveolar epithelial cells, and how this promotes pulmonary fibrosis, using AT2 cell-specific Grp78 knockout mice.
The school
Emory University: 70 labs on PI Pages, $1.2B a year on research, 286 research doctorates a year.
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