Yaw Shin is an Assistant Professor in the Emerging Infectious Diseases (EID) program at Duke-NUS Medical School. He received his doctorate from Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Mentor: Margaret Kielian), New York, and later pursued his postdoctoral training at Stanford University (Mentor: Jan Carette), California. He has a long-established interest in discovering cellular factors (host dependency factors and restrictions factors) that determine susceptibility and permissivity to virus infections. Host dependency factors are keys hijacked by viruses to penetrate cellular barriers and rewire host cells for promoting viral protein translation, genome replication, assembly, exit, and spread. In contrast, viruses must evade antiviral innate immunity to avoid tolls during the infection process, especially by antagonizing host restriction factors. Currently, his team's focus is centered on mosquito-borne RNA viruses and human respiratory RNA viruses – all pose serious threats to global public health.
‘Studying one host gene is good; carry along all genes is even better.’ – Jan Carette
Functional genomic approaches such as genome-scale CRISPR editing, Haploid genetic screen, and genome-wide RNAi have continuously driven the discovery of new knowledge about many emerging and re-merging viruses. We leverage the awesome power of functional genomics to unbiasedly uncover host factors essential for infection and pathogenesis of clinically significant RNA viruses. Our discovery will shed light on the underlying molecular mechanisms of viral infections and diseases, and we hope to provide new knowledge for improving vaccine designs and development and innovating antiviral strategies.
For more information, please visit our lab website.
Selected Publications:
Know your enemy and know yourself - the case of SARS-CoV-2 host factors.
Lee WS, Yousefi M, Yan B, Yong CL, and Ooi YS (2021). Current Opinion in Virology
A memory of eS25 loss drives resistance phenotypes.
Johnson AG, Flynn RA, Lapointe CP, Ooi YS et al (2020) Nucleic Acids Research
Enterovirus Pathogenesis Requires the Host Methyltransferase SETD3.
*Diep J, *Ooi YS, *Wilkinson AW et al (2019) Nature Microbiology
An RNA-Centric Dissection of Host Complexes Controlling Flavivirus Infection.
*Ooi YS, *Majzoub K, *Flynn RA et al (2019) Nature Microbiology
Mechanism of Tetherin Inhibition of Alphavirus Release.
Wan JJ, Ooi YS, and Kielian M (2019) Journal of Virology
SETD3 is an actin histidine methyltransferase that prevents primary dystocia.
*Wilkinson AW, *Diep J, *Dai S, Liu S, Ooi YS et al (2019). Nature
STAG2 deficiency induces IFN responses via cGAS-STING pathway and restricts virus infection.
Ding S, Diep J, Feng N, Ren L, Li B, Ooi YS et al. (2018). Nature Communications
A small molecule oligosaccharyltransferase inhibitor with pan-flaviviral activity.
Puschnik AS, Marceau CD, Ooi YS et al (2017) Cell Reports
Drebrin restricts rotavirus entry by inhibiting dynamin-mediated endocytosis.
*Li B, *Ding S, Feng N, Mooney N, Ooi YS et al (2017) PNAS
Reviews:
A CRISPR toolbox to study virus-host interactions.
Puschnik AS, Majzoub K, Ooi YS, and Carette JE (2017) Nature Reviews Microbiology
Genetic dissection of Flaviviridae host factors through genome-scale CRISPR screens.
*Marceau CD, *Puschnik AS, Majzoub K, Ooi YS et al (2016) Nature
BST2/Tetherin inhibits alphavirus exit.
Ooi YS, Dubé M, and Kielian M (2015)Viruses
Genome-wide RNAi screen identifies novel host proteins required for alphavirus entry.
*Ooi YS, *Stiles K, *Liu CY et al (2013) PLoS Pathogens