2018 AGA – Rome Foundation Research Award Recipient
Principle Investigator: Shaoyong Yu, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Gastroenterology
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD
Dr. Yu’s research focuses on sensory neurobiology in the gastrointestinal tract, with specific emphasis on nerve-immune interactions and their contribution to visceral nociception. His expertise in Neurogastroenterology is based on his previous post-doctoral training in both GI motility disorders (with Drs. Schuster, Crowell, and Lacy) and Neurophysiology (with Dr. Undem) at Johns Hopkins University. He started his independent research career at Penn State University, stayed briefly at the University of Michigan, and recently returned to the Johns Hopkins University, Center for Neurogastroenterology. His earlier GI research training started with clinical research in gastrointestinal motility disorders. The three years intensive clinical research experience not only enriched his knowledge on clinical GI motility disorders but also inspired him to further explore the neuronal mechanism of visceral sensation and nociception. Dr. Yu has led the successful effort in developing IgE-dependent esophageal mast cell activation to investigate nerve-immune interactions in the esophagus. Recently, his research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of acid and bile acid in activation of esophageal nociceptive C fibers.