Skip to McMaster Navigation Skip to Site Navigation Skip to main content
McMaster logo

Trainee of the Month – Yu “Hugo” Yan

Hugo Yan headshot

Hugo Yan - 2nd-Year Master's student - Medical Sciences

Hugo is a second year Master student in the Medical Science program and a recipient of the Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s award.

Hugo leads McMaster SynBio, a student-led synthetic biology research team based at the McMaster Biointerfaces Institute. He was featured in a Brighter World article, Innovating with empathy: Student-led research team earns silver for novel bacterial treatment.

What is your current research focus?
I am currently working Dr. Tobias Berg’s lab, where I also performed my undergraduate thesis research. We are exploring novel maintenance strategies to prevent acute myeloid leukemia (AML) relapse after allogeneic stem cell transplantations. AML cells can evade allogeneic immune surveillance, a process often driven by epigenetic changes. My project focuses on the roles of the epigenetic regulator lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) in promoting anti-leukemia immunity and reinvigorating exhausted T cells. To date, I have shown that LSD1 inhibition can enhance the immunogenicity of AML cells and sensitize them to T cell-mediated immune killing.

Meanwhile, I am also leading my research team at the McMaster Biointerfaces Institute to develop a targeted cancer gene therapy for B-cell lymphoma using adeno-associated virus phage (AAVP) vectors. You can learn more about our project at: https://2022.igem.wiki/mcmaster-a/index.html

What made you interested in pursuing cancer research?
Through my interdisciplinary research experiences, I firmly believe that immunotherapy will be a cornerstone of future cancer treatment. However, further understanding of anti-tumor immunity is required to improve existing treatment options and discover novel therapeutic opportunities. Having obtained my undergraduate degree from the Biomedical Discovery and Commercialization program, I also became aware of the challenges and difficulties in bringing exciting biomedical innovations to the clinical setting. Therefore, I am determined to become a socially accountable science entrepreneur who actively engages in the development and translation of novel cancer immunotherapy..

What are your interests outside the CDCR and the lab?
Outside of the lab, I am a varsity athlete with the McMaster Fencing Team. I also enjoy travelling, watching movies and playing the piano.

 Trainee of the Month