Dr. Yang Hyun Yun says he always knew engineering was the right field for him. But as a senior about to graduate with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, he just wasn’t happy with the obvious career paths in industry the degree offered.
Dr. Yang Hyun Yun was one of two UA engineering faculty members to receive a National Science Foundation CAREER award.
Then he happened to attend a lecture by Dr. Y.C. Fung, who is widely regarded as the “father of biomedical engineering.” It was Fung who established the founding principles of the field of bioengineering, and helped launch the program at the University of California, San Diego.
“I was inspired by Dr. Fung,” recalls Yun. “I’d never thought about engineering principles being applied to treat injuries and disease. Now I could see using engineering to look at the complexities of both, and contribute to medicine without being a medical doctor.”
His career path was suddenly very clear.
Today, the newly promoted associate professor of biomedical engineering has found his niche — immersed in a variety of research that has real promise for medical breakthroughs. His interests include drug and gene delivery, tissue engineering and the treatment of infectious diseases.
Early in 2010, Yun was one of two UA engineering faculty members to receive a National Science Foundation CAREER award. The NSF program supports faculty researchers early in their careers. With the $450,000 award, Yun and his research team are working toward clinical applications for nonviral gene therapy.
He also is teamed with investigators from the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy, Summa Health System, Case Western Reserve and Kent State universities to develop polymers that can be embedded with medicine to improve the healing of chronic wounds. The group received a $100,000 grant from Akron’s Austen BioInnovation Institute in February.
Strength in collaboration
For several years, Yun has been working on a potential nanoparticle antibiotic treatment option for pulmonary infections, including pneumonia and cystic fibrosis, with UA colleagues Dr. Wiley Youngs, a distinguished professor of chemistry; Dr. Gerald Young, a professor of applied mathematics; and Dr. Carolyn Cannon, co-director of the Cystic Fibrosis Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. This research team, which includes more faculty from UA and other institutions, has received more than $1.6 million dollars from the National Institutes of Health.
The opportunities for collaboration across disciplines have helped advance his work, says Yun, who earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering at the University of Memphis. Prior to joining UA in 2004, he was a postdoctoral fellow at State University of New York at Stony Brook.
But students play an integral part in his research efforts as well.
It was a former student here at UA who developed a polymer for Yun to use as a delivery platform, and many graduate, undergraduate and high school students over the past five years have participated in the development and characterization the drug delivery devices using this polymer.
“L-tyrosine polyphosphate, which is derived from an amino acid, has been made into nanoparticles, so it can be delivered inside a cell,” explains Yun. “The choices of materials and their formulation parameters are designed to prevent the activation of the immune response. Because the polymer degrades within seven days, the nanoparticles won’t outlive the life of the cell, and all of the material being implanted will be released at a controlled rate, to the maximum benefit of the patient. For many therapies to be effective, the method of delivering medicine inside a cell needs to do so without triggering the body’s immune response.
“I’m very proud of the students I’ve mentored,” adds Yun. “I have a dedicated group of graduate students who are part of my research group. I share my success with them.
“The CAREER award is recognition that we are developing cutting edge nanoparticle technology — the NSF is telling us we’re on the right track.”