Members’ Labs

Ke Yuan, PhD

Assistant Professor
Department of Pediatrics
Division of Pulmonary Medicine
Boston Children's Hospital

Primary Research:

The Ke Yuan Lab is dedicated to uncovering the cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive vascular remodeling in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Our research primarily focuses on defining the distinct roles of vascular cell populations, particularly pericytes, endothelial cells, and smooth muscle cells, in the initiation and progression of PAH. The ultimate goal is to identify therapeutic targets capable of reversing pathological remodeling and restoring normal vascular function. In our recent work, we identified Higd1b as a pericyte-specific gene marker and developed a novel Higd1b-CreERT2 knock-in mouse model. This genetic tool provides a unique opportunity to dissect the multifaceted roles of pericytes in vascular development, homeostasis, and injury response.

Laboratory web site URL:

https://www.yuankelab.com

Laboratory Motto:

Thinking beyond boundaries.

Members of the Laboratory

Timothy Klouda (Instructor of Harvard Medical School, NIH K08 awardee)
Yunhye Kim (Postdoctoral Fellow, AHA postdoc fellowship awardee)
Seung Han Baek (Postdoctoral Fellow, Bioinformatics)
Elizabeth Moss (2nd year Clinical Fellow)
Yan Li (Research Assistant II)
Jocelyn Zhao (Research Assistant II)
Gustavo Alves (Undergraduate Student from Boston University, COACH program at Boston Children's Hospital)
Ryan Wang (High School Student from San Diego)
Marisa Smit (Visiting Student, Graduate Student from Amsterdam Medical Center)
Simon Mattiasson (Visiting Medical Student, Lund University, Sweden)
Nils Sturesson (Visiting Medical Student, Lund University, Sweden)

Recent Publications

Klouda T, Kim Y, Baek SH, Bhaumik M, Li Y, Liu Y, Wu JC, Raby BA, Perez VJ, Yuan K. Specialized pericyte subtypes in the pulmonary capillaries. EMBO J. 2025 Feb;44(4):1074-1106. PMID: 39806101; PMCID: PMC11833098.
Kim H, Liu Y, Kim J, Kim Y, Klouda T, Fisch S, Baek SH, Liu T, Dahlberg S, Hu CJ, Tian W, Jiang X, Kosmas K, Christou HA, Korman BD, Vargas SO, Wu JC, Stenmark KR, Perez VJ, Nicolls MR, Raby BA, Yuan K. Pericytes contribute to pulmonary vascular remodeling via HIF2α signaling. EMBO Rep. 2024 Feb;25(2):616-645. PMID: 38243138; PMCID: PMC10897382.
Tsikis ST, Klouda T, Hirsch TI, Fligor SC, Liu T, Kim Y, Pan A, Quigley M, Mitchell PD, Puder M, Yuan K. A pneumonectomy model to study flow-induced pulmonary hypertension and compensatory lung growth. Cell Reports Method. 2023 Oct 23;3(10):100613. doi: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2023.100613. PMID: 37827157; PMCID: PMC10626210.
Baek SH, Maiorino E, Kim H, Glass K, Raby BR, Yuan K. Single Cell Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Organ Specific Pericyte Markers and Identities. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2022; 9: 876591. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2022.876591. PMID: 35722109; PMCID: PMC9199463.
Klouda T, Tsikis ST, Hirsch TI, Kim Y, Liu T, Friehs I, Shyy JY, Visner G, Raby BA, Puder M, Yuan K. Smooth muscle Cxcl12 activation is associated with vascular remodeling in flow-induced pulmonary hypertension. Accepted by the Journal of Biological Chemistry.