Postdoctoral fellow
I am broadly interested in the role of lipid metabolism dysregulations in the etiology of rare neurological disorders. My current research focuses on investigating the role of elongase dysregulation in the progression of peroxisome biogenesis disorders (PBD), using both Drosophila mutants and human fibroblasts derived from PBD patients. Specifically, I aim to determine whether inhibition of elongase activities during development could ameliorate the accumulation of very-long-chain phospholipids and sphingolipids and rescue disease progression in Drosophila Pex1, Pex2, and Pex16 mutants and in human patient fibroblasts carrying hypomorphic PEX1 mutations, which are the most prevalent mutations currently present in PBD patients.
Lacin H*, Zhu Y*, DiPaola JT*, Wilson BA, Zhu Y, Skeath JB (2024). A genetic screen in Drosophila uncovers a role for senseless-2 in surface glia in the peripheral nervous system to regulate CNS morphology G3 (Bethesda) 14(9) jkae152 Abstract
Zhu Y, Cho K, Lacin H, Zhu Y, DiPaola JT, Wilson BA, Patti GJ, Skeath JB (2024). Loss of dihydroceramide desaturase drives neurodegeneration by disrupting endoplasmic reticulum and lipid droplet homeostasis in glial cells eLife 13 RP99344 Abstract
Shingleton AW, Masandika JR*, Thorsen LS*, Zhu Y*, Mirth CK (2017). The sex-specific effects of diet quality versus quantity on morphology in Drosophila melanogaster R Soc Open Sci. 4(9) 170375 Abstract