Dr. Dahea You is the Drug Metabolism and Disposition Highlighted Trainee Author for the June 2020 issue. Dr. You is a postdoctoral fellow in the National Toxicology Program at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Dr. You obtained her Doctor of Pharmacy in 2014 and Doctor of Philosophy in Toxicology in 2019, both at Rutgers University. She was a predoctoral trainee in the Joint Graduate Program in Toxicology at Rutgers University at the time of the manuscript preparation. Her predoctoral mentors are Drs. Lauren Aleksunes at Rutgers University and Jason Richardson at Florida International University. The Drug Metabolism and Disposition article that earned her selection as a Highlighted Trainee Author is titled “Epigenetic Regulation of Multidrug Resistance Protein 1 and Breast Cancer Resistance Protein Transporters by Histone Deacetylase Inhibition” and is available at https://doi.org/10.1124/dmd.119.089953.
Dr. You’s area of research is mechanistic toxicology and neurotoxicology. Her predoctoral research investigated the epigenetic regulation of multidrug resistance 1 (MDR1) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) transporters at the blood-brain barrier, which play critical roles in extruding xenobiotics from the brain. The results of this research showed that histone acetylation could effectively alter the levels of these transporters, suggesting that the brain penetration of drugs or toxicants that are substrates of these transporters may subsequently be modulated through this epigenetic mechanism.
As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. You, under the mentorship of Drs. Alison Harrill and Nisha Sipes at the NIEHS, is currently working on two Tox21 federal interagency collaborative projects which aim to: (1) model and investigate interindividual variability in responses to neurotoxicants using neural progenitor cells derived from Diversity Outbred genetically diverse mouse population; and (2) optimize the query of biological space in high throughput in vitro screening by selecting human cell lines with divergent tissue origins and transcriptional characteristics.
The anticipated impact of Dr. You’s research is to help improve toxicity screening and human health risk assessment by developing in vitro approaches that can better capture the complete picture of diverse toxicity responses and varying susceptibility of the human population.
When not in the lab, Dahea enjoys spending time with family and friends, exercising, including yoga, hiking, baking, drawing, and playing the flute and piano. She also loves to travel.