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Yen-Pei Christy Chang, PhD, MS

Academic Title:

Associate Professor

Primary Appointment:

Medicine

Secondary Appointment(s):

Epidemiology & Public Health, BioChemistry&Molecular Biology

Administrative Title:

Senior Program Advisor

Additional Title:

Christy Chang (Other Name)

Location:

670 West Baltimore Street, HSF3 Room 4174

Phone (Primary):

(410) 706-6737 (office)

Fax:

(410) 706-1622

Education and Training

Education And Training

1984-1988       B.S.     Biology with minor in Chemistry

                                   Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, VA

1988-1994       Ph.D.   Human Genetics and Molecular Biology

                                   The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

                                   Thesis Advisors:  Kirby D. Smith, Ph.D. and George J. Dover, M.D.

Post Graduate Education And Training

1995-1997       University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy, Post-doctoral research

                        Mentor:  Licinio Contu, M.D.

Employment History

2005-2010       Assistant Professor Department of Medicine

                        University of Maryland School of Medicine

2005-2010       Assistant Professor Department of Epidemiology and Public Health

                        University of Maryland School of Medicine

2010-pres        Associate Professor Department of Medicine

                        University of Maryland School of Medicine

2010-pres        Associate Professor Department of Epidemiology and Public Health

                        University of Maryland School of Medicine

Biosketch

Trained in human genetics and molecular biology, my research in the last 10 years has centered on the genetic basis of complex diseases, with hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and bipolar depression as the phenotypes of primary focus. I have been involved in many aspects of genetics: molecular analysis of genotype-phenotype relationships, NextGen sequencing for allele finding and for transcriptom analysis, genome-wide linkage and association studies, pharmacogenetics, comparative genomics, bioinformatics, and mouse models of human diseases. I have been continuously funded by NIH (RO1s, R21s, and ARRA) since 2007. Specifically for this grant, I am currently conducting a study to investigate the genetic basis of pain sensing. Other than research, I am passionate about graduate school eduction and contribute to numerous classes for medical and graduate students.  I am also interested in various aspects of faculty development and a granting writing coach for minority faculty through the NIH sponsored National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN)

Research/Clinical Keywords

Molecular and genetic bases of complex disorders such as hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, regulatory elements (non-protein coding) in the human genome, gene regulation, bioinformatics tools for function prediction, faculty development, and graduate school education.

Highlighted Publications

  1. Chang YP, Liu X, Kim JD, Ikeda MA, Layton MR, Weder AB, Cooper RS, Kardia SL, Rao DC, Hunt SC, Luke A, Boerwinkle E, Chakravarti A. Multiple genes for essential-hypertension susceptibility on chromosome 1q. Am J Hum Genet. 2007;80(2):253-64. PMCID: 1785356.
  2. Wang Y, O'Connell JR, McArdle PF, Wade JB, Dorff SE, Shah SJ, Shi X, Pan L, Rampersaud E, Shen H, Kim JD, Subramanya AR, Steinle NI, Parsa A, Ober CC, Welling PA, Chakravarti A, Weder AB, Cooper RS, Mitchell BD, Shuldiner AR, Chang YP. From the Cover: Whole-genome association study identifies STK39 as a hypertension susceptibility gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009;106(1):226-31. PMCID: 2629209.
  3. Ehret GB, Munroe PB, Rice KM, Bochud M, Johnson AD, Chasman DI, Smith AV, Tobin MD, …, Chang YP, O'Connell JR, Steinle NI, Grobbee DE, Arking DE, Kardia SL, Morrison AC, Hernandez D, …,Abecasis GR, Chakravarti A, Elliott P, van Duijn CM, Newton-Cheh C, Levy D, Caulfield MJ, Johnson T. Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk. Nature. 2011; 478(7367):103-9. PMID:21909115.
  4. Prasad M, Bhalla K, Pan Z, O’Connell J, Weder A, Chakravarti A, Tian B, Chang YC, A polymorphic 3’UTR element in ATP1B1 regulates alternative polyadenylation and is associated with blood pressure. PLoS ONE 2013:8(10): e76290
  5. Roy A, DonnellyBF, RonzaudC, GongF, ChangYC, ButterworthMB, Pastor-SolerN, HallowsKR, StaubO, and Subramanya AR, Alternatively spliced proline-rich cassettes link WNK1 to aldosterone action, J Clin Invest. 2015;125(9):3433–3448.
  6. May E. Montasser, Elizabeth A. O'Hare, Xiaochun Wang, Alicia D. Howard, Rebecca McFarland, James A. Perry, Kathleen A. Ryan, Kenneth Rice, Cashell E. Jaquish, Alan R. Shuldiner, Michael Miller, Braxton D. Mitchell, Norann A. Zaghloul, Yen-Pei C. Chang, An APOO Pseudogene on Chromosome 5q is Associated with LDL-C Levels, Circulation, published online April, 2018