Gary Yam
Affiliate Members
Dr. Gary Yam is a Research Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, Corneal Regeneration Laboratory, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Dr. Yam attended the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he obtained his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Oncology and Cancer Biology, a Master degree in Oncology and Cancer Biology, and a Bachelor degree in Biology, General.
Dr. Yam’s research interests include cell biology: corneal epithelium and stroma (keratocytes) and corneal endothelium, corneal stem cells and application of cell-based and cell-free therapies for corneal disorders; stromal tissue engineering and bioscaffold; cell reprogramming and differentiation; epigenetics; protein folding disorders and molecular chaperone-assisted protein refolding.
The Cornea Regeneration Lab focuses on the cornea, an organ that provides a visual portal to the world. The connective tissue of the cornea (stroma) is extremely tough and transparent to light. It also presents a significant biological barrier to infection. Globally, millions of patients have corneal opacities due to disease or trauma, hence vision loss. Dr. Yam’s work focuses on the biological processes that produce and maintain the unique tissue of corneal stroma as well as the pathological changes that occur during injury, wound healing, scarring, and diseases. He and his team explore new designs to reverse the scarring process or replace the scarred cornea with bioengineered corneal tissue. His lab has reported using stromal keratocytes, stromal stem cells, and extracellular vesicles to restore corneal transparency. These cell-based and cell-free treatments produce tissue identical to that of the transparent corneal tissue in animal models of corneal injury. Dr. Yam and others are manufacturing GMP-compliant clinical-grade corneal stem cells for clinical trials in patients with corneal scarring, and also actively investigating the mechanism by which the stem cells induce tissue regeneration. Publication list: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/gary.yam.1/bibliography/public/