Young-Eun Cho, PhD

Contact Information 

Office: 482 CNB

Brief description of current research: 

Dr. Cho is interested in the role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in mother and child obesity. She is interested in miRNAs in obese mother’s EVs that affect gene expression of mother and child. (1) Placenta is a unique organ during pregnancy and placenta-derived EVs are circulating in the maternal blood. miRNAs in placenta-derived EVs may be altered in obese pregnant women, which could lead various pregnancy complications. She is interested in finding unique placenta-derived EV miRNA profiles in obese pregnant women and their impacts on the pregnant women’s health. (2) Breastmilk is beneficial to prevent childhood obesity. However, due to the increasing number of obese mothers, there is a concern whether breastfeeding is still good in reducing the risk of obesity when mothers are obese. In breastmilk EVs, miRNAs are encapsulated, thus they could enter the gut of babies where microbiome reside and interact with the host. She is interested in examining whether EV miRNAs in the breastmilk of obese mothers affects microbiome of infants, then increases the risk of childhood obesity.

3 most influential diabetes/obesity/metabolism publications:

  • Kwon YJ* and Cho YE*, Cho A, Choi WJ, Yun S, Park H, Kim HS, Cashion AK, Gill J, Lee H and Lee JW. The Possible Influence of Mediterranean Diet on Extracellular Vesicle miRNA Expression in Breast Cancer Survivors. Cancers 2020;12:1355 doi:10.3390/cancers12061355 (*co-first authors).
  • Cho YE, Lee H, Yun S, Kim HS, Cashion AK. Exosomal protein profiles as novel biomarkers in weight gain after kidney transplantation: a pilot study. Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science 2020;22(2):1-8 doi.org/10.7586/jkbns.2020.22.2.1
  • Edwards KA, Motamedi V, Osier N, Kim HS, Yun SJ, Cho YE, Lai C, Carr W, Walker P, Ahlers S, LoPresti M, Yarnell A, Tschiffley A, Gill JM. A Moderate Blast Exposure Results in Dysregulated Gene Network Activity Related to Cell Death, Survival, Structure, and Metabolism. Frontiers in Neurology 2020;11:91. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2020.00091

Quote:

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple" -Dr. Seuss