Biology grad lands National Cancer Institute research training post

Yoo, who graduated in June from La Sierra University with a Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical science is a Cancer Research Training Awardee with the National Cancer Institute. She recently recalled her childhood ordeal with Kawasaki disease, a form of vasculitis involving inflammation of the blood vessels which left unchecked can cause significant heart problems in children. The illness, for which there is no specific test, relies on physicians’ intuition and knowledge for a timely and accurate diagnosis. “Without that doctor’s help, I may have had serious health complication or not even be here today,” Yoo said. “She gave me my future and I would like to do the same for others.”

Yoo, who has won multiple honors and awards during her college career is on the fast track to becoming a physician and researcher. She applied in February for the Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award at the National Institutes of Health of which the National Cancer Institute is a part, and was accepted as a research training awardee in April. She completed her biology degree course requirements at La Sierra in March, participated in La Sierra’s commencement in June, and presented research at the American Society of Virology 38th Annual Meeting in Minneapolis where she was one of three undergraduate poster awardees. In June Yoo flew to Maryland to begin training at the NCI where she is currently working with Dr. Wei-Shau Hu characterizing the mechanism by which HIV replicates. 

The Postbaccalaureate Cancer Research Training Award Program provides recent college graduates who are planning to apply to graduate or professional school an opportunity to perform full-time biomedical research working side-by-side with some of the leading scientists in the world, according to a description of the program.

Under Dr. Hu’s direction Yoo is studying genomic ribonucleic acid, or RNA packaging into HIV-1 virus particles as well as the mechanism by which a particular viral protein drives the packaging of the HIV RNA into virus particles. “The study of the retroviral life cycle, specifically the transfer of viral genetic information, has profound implication for questions that are fundamentally important to HIV replication [which] can lead to the generation of new strategies to block the spread of HIV,” she said.

Yoo grew up in Irvine, California and enrolled at La Sierra in 2015 attracted to its biology program. “I knew when applying for college that I wanted to be a physician and from others’ anecdotes I knew La Sierra University could help me get there,” she said. At La Sierra she encountered multiple opportunities to participate in graduate-level research. Through Biology Professor Lee Grismer’s lab she joined a field research expedition to Malaysia during which she and two other undergrads discovered a new species of tree frog. Through  participation in Assistant Biology Professor Arturo Diaz’s lab her research resulted in the presentation at the Minneapolis conference attended by 1,400 scientists. Her project focused on characterizing the replication cycle of a plant positive strand RNA virus known as brome mosaic virus, or BMV which uses similar mechanisms to replicate its genome as human viruses like Zika, West Nile and Dengue.

“My project consisted of identifying and characterizing some of the host proteins that are used by BMV to help it replicate.  We were able to show that two proteins that help shape the tubular endoplasmic reticulum in cells, Sey1 and Lnp1, are essential for BMV to replicate,” she said. Previous work in the Diaz lab had demonstrated that host proteins used by BMV to replicate its genome are also used by viruses that infect humans, which highlights the importance of the work being done. 

“The ultimate goal is to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms by which viruses use cellular proteins to help them replicate in order to design interventions for more effective and diverse antiviral therapies,” Diaz said.

La Sierra’s biology program also prepared Yoo in the broader traits and skills necessary to produce sound and successful research such as persistence, humility, and a strong work ethic, she said.  “Overall, I believe that La Sierra University provided me with the tools and opportunities to succeed. I could not be where I am at today without the encouragement and help of the faculty, especially Dr. Diaz.”