Education
Dr. Yajun Yu earned his PhD degree in Genetics/Biomedical Sciences (Bioinformatics and Biostatistics related) at Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canada) in 2022.
He also received a MSc degree in Microbiology in Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2013.
Awards, Fellowships, Honors, and Recognitions
2022.05 Fellow of the School of Graduate Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland
2020.09 A.G. Hatcher Memorial Scholarship, Memorial University of Newfoundland ($15,000 for one year)
2020.08 Representing MUN Med School to attend the 33rd Canadian Student Health Research Forum
2020.05 Human Genetics Graduate Student Award, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland
2019.10 BHCRI (Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute) CRTP (Cancer Research Training Program) featured trainee
2019.04 Best poster presentation by a PhD candidate in Genetics Research Forum, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland
2019.03 Dr. Angus J. Neary Genetics Scholarship, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland
2019.01 Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute/Terry Fox Research Institute (BHCRI/TFRI) Cancer Research Training Program Award, Atlantic Canada ($32,130 for one year and eight months)
2018.10 Faculty of Medicine Dean’s Fellowship, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland ($20,000 for one year)
2018.03 Dean’s Building a Healthy Tomorrow Award, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland
2018.03 Dr. Roger C. Green Graduate Scholarship in Human Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland
2017.05 The Best Graduate Student Presenter Award for Discipline of Genetics Seminar Series, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland
2016.12 Translational and Personalized Medicine Initiative/NL SUPPORT Educational Funding Fellowship, Newfoundland and Labrador ($13,500 for three years)
2016.10 Travel bursary by Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute/Terry Fox Research Institute (BHCRI/TFRI) to attend their cancer research conference, Atlantic Canada
2011.07 Merit Student of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China
2009.11 Third Prize of “Challenge Cup” Competition of National Undergraduate Extra-Curricular Academic Science and Technology Works at national level, Beijing, China
2009.11 First Prize of “Challenge cup” Competition of National Undergraduate Extra-Curricular Academic Science and Technology Works at provincial level, Harbin, China
Research Interests:
The current research interest of Dr. Yu is to uncover the genetic regulatory architecture of cardiovascular diseases and colorectal cancer, with a special focus on the layer of alternative splicing, using cutting-edge experimental technologies and advanced bioinformatics tools.
Selected Publications:
1. Yajun Yu, Megan Carey, William Pollett, Jane Green, Elizabeth Dicks, Patrick Parfrey, Yildiz E. Yilmaz, Sevtap Savas. The long-term survival characteristics of a cohort of colorectal cancer patients and baseline variables associated with survival outcomes with or without time-varying effects. BMC Medicine 2019, 17(1): 150 (impact factor: 11.806).
2. Yajun Yu, Salem Werdyani, Megan Carey, Patrick Parfrey, Yildiz E. Yilmaz, Sevtap Savas. A comprehensive analysis of SNPs and CNVs identifies novel markers associated with disease outcomes in colorectal cancer. Molecular Oncology 2021, 15(12):3329-3347 (impact factor: 7.449).
3. Yajun Yu, Yihui Yuan, Meiying Gao. Construction of an environmental safe Bacillus thuringiensis engineered strain against Coleoptera. Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2016, 100(9): 4027-4034.
4. Yajun Yu, Dangxiao Cheng, Patrick Parfrey, Geoffrey Liu, Sevtap Savas. Two functional indel polymorphisms in the promoter region of the Brahma gene (BRM) and disease risk and progression-free survival in colorectal cancer. PLoS One, 2018, 13(6): e0198873.
5. Aaron Curtis, Yajun Yu, Megan Carey, Patrick Parfrey, Yildiz E. Yilmaz, Sevtap Savas. Multifactor dimensionality reduction method identifies novel SNP interactions in the WNT protein interaction networks that are associated with recurrence risk in colorectal cancer. Frontiers in Oncology, 2023, 13.
6. Aaron Curtis, Yajun Yu, Megan Carey, Patrick Parfrey, Yildiz E. Yilmaz, Sevtap Savas. Examining SNP-SNP interactions and risk of clinical outcomes in colorectal cancer using Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction based methods. Frontiers in Genetics, 2022, 13:902217.
7. Salem Werdyani, Yajun Yu, Georgia Skardasi, Jingxiong Xu, Konstantin Shestopaloff, Wei Xu, Elizabeth Dicks, Jane Green, Patrick Parfrey, Yildiz Yilmaz, Sevtap Savas. Germline INDELs and CNVs in a cohort of colorectal cancer patients: their characteristics, associations with relapse-free survival time, and potential time-varying effects on the risk of relapse. Cancer Medicine, 2017, 6(6): 1220–1232.