Shuyuan Yao had extensive virology experience from his M.Sc. studies in China and worked as a technician at the Scripps Institute in San Diego before moving to Toronto. Yao’s PhD thesis focused on chromatin modifications associated with retrovirus and lentivirus vector silencing, with a strong side interest in the use of insulator elements to block silencing.

After a quiet and determined start in the lab, while becoming the first person in Toronto to master the chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) technique, he settled down and wouldn’t stop talking.

Funded by Stem Cell Network and Sick Kids Restracomp Awards.

Next position
Postdoctoral fellow, Scripps Institute, San Diego, CA

Selected Publications:
Ellis J, Yao S. (2005) Retrovirus silencing and vector design: relevance to normal and cancer stem cells? Current Gene Therapy. 5:367-373.

Dalle B,* Rubin J*, Alkan O, Sukonnik T, Pasceri P, Yao S, Pawliuk R, Leboulch P, Ellis J. (2005) eGFP reporter genes silence LCRβ-globin transgene expression via CpG dinucleotides. Molecular Therapy. 11:591-599. * Equal first authors.

Yao S, Sukonnik T, Kean T, Bharadwaj R, Pasceri P, Ellis J. (2004) Retrovirus Silencing, Variegation, Extinction and Memory are controlled by a dynamic interplay of multiple epigenetic modifications. Molecular Therapy.10:1 27-37.

Yao S, Osborne CS, Bharadwaj R.R, Pasceri P, Sukonnik T, Pannell D, Recillas-Targa F, West A.G, Ellis J. (2003) Retrovirus silencer blocking by the cHS4 insulator is CTCF independent. NAR. 31:18 5317-5323.

Pannell D, Osborne CS, Yao S, Sukonnik T, Pasceri P, Karaiskakis A, Okano M, Li E, Lipshitz HD, Ellis J. (2000) Retrovirus vector silencing is de novo methylase independent and marked by a repressive histone code. EMBO. 19: 5884-5894.