Karen Wing Yee Yuen

Education

• Post-doctoral fellow University of California, San Diego - School of Medicine (2007 — 2011)
• Doctor of Philosophy - PhD The University of British Columbia (2001 — 2007)
• Bachelor of Science - BS Simon Fraser University (1997 — 2001)

Teaching Areas

• From Molecules to Cells
• Molecular Biology (Course Coordinator)
• Healthcare Biotechnology
• Stem Cells and Regenerative Biology (Course Coordinator)
• Business Aspects of Biotechnology

Research Interests

Every cell must replicate and segregate their genome faithfully during each cell cycle. Errors in chromosome segregation during mitosis or meiosis can result in chromosome gain or loss (aneuploidy) and chromosome instability (CIN), which may lead to cancer progression, spontaneous abortion or birth defects, such as Down syndrome. Understanding the cellular mechanisms that ensure accurate chromosome segregation is fundamentally important and medically relevant. The underlying mechanism can also be applied to the development of artificial chromosome technology for gene therapy purpose and biotechnology applications.

Currently, we are using Caenorhabditis elegans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae as model organisms to understand these fundamental processes in the cell cycle. We utilize cell biology, imaging, transgenics, genome editing, genomics, proteomics, biochemical, and single-cell approaches to address these questions.

• Aneuploidy and Chromosome Instability (CIN)
• Cell Division and Chromosome Segregation
• Cell Cycle

Current Research

• Centromere Establishment and Propagation (e.g. Histone chaperone functions in centromeric nucleosome)
• Epigenetic regulation on Centromere (e.g. histone modifications, non-coding RNA and transcription)
• Artificial Chromosomes
• Sister Chromatin Cohesion
• Anoxia-induced Suspended Animation and Recovery

Fellowships

• Hong Kong Croucher Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship (tenured at Dr. Arshad Desai Lab, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research / Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego, USA)
• National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Postgraduate Scholarships A & B (tenured at Dr. Phil Hieter Lab, Department of Medical Genetics / Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Canada)
• University of British Columbia Graduate Fellowship

Awards and Honours

Selected Awards:

• 2016 Second Prize for the Best Research Output, Strategic Research Theme – Development and Reproduction, HKU (for Cell Reports. 2016. 14:1819-1828)
• 2012 Early Career Award, Research Grant Council (RGC) of Hong Kong
• Simon Fraser University Chemistry / Biochemistry Award