Professor, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine
Co-Director, Harrington Rare Disease Program, School of Medicine
Email: mpa52@case.edu
OCRID: 0000-0003-4602-1811
Yi Nong, PhD
Research Scientist
Email: yi.nong@case.edu
ORCiD:
Yi Nong’s Selective PUBLICATIONS
- Nong Y*., Sorenson E.M*. and Chiappinelli V.A. (1999) Fast excitatory nicotinic transmission in the chick lateral spiriform nucleus. Journal of Neuroscience 19:(18) 7804-7811. (*co-first author)
- Nong, Y*., Huang, Y.Q*., Ju, W*., Kalia, L.V., Ahmadian,R., Wang, Y.T. and Salter,M.W. (2003) Glycine binding primes the NMDA receptor internalization. Nature. 422(6929): 302-307. (*co-first author)
- Nong Y., Huang Y.Q., Salter M.W. (2004) NMDA receptors movin’ in. Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 14(3):353-61.
- Snyder EM, Nong Y, Almeida CG, Paul S, Moran T, Choi EY, Nairn AC, Salter MW, Lombroso PJ, Gouras GK & Greengard P (2005) Regulation of NMDA receptor trafficking by amyloid-β. Nat Neurosci 8:1051-1058.
- Chen Y, Nong Y, Goudet C, Hemstapat K, de Paulis T, Pin JP, Conn PJ (2007) Interaction of novel positive allosteric modulators of metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 with the negative allosteric antagonist site is required for potentiation of receptor responses. Mol Pharmacol. 71(5):1389-98.
- Wang H, Westin L, Nong Y, Birnbaum S, Bendor J, Brismar H, Nestler E, Aperia A, Flajolet M, Greengard P. (2009) Norbin is an endogenous regulator of metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 signaling. Science. 2009 Dec 11;326 (5959):1554-1557.
- Tekinay AB, Nong Y, Miwa JM, Lieberam I, Ibanez-Tallon I, Greengard P, Heintz N.A. (2009) Role for LYNX2 in anxiety-related behavior. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Mar 17;106 (11):4477-82.
- Krishnan V*, Stoppel DC*, Nong Y*, Johnson MA, Nadler MJS, Ozkaynak E, Teng BL, Nagakura I, Mohammad F, Silva MA, Peterson S, Cruz TJ, Kasper EM, Arnaout R, and Anderson MP. Autism gene Ube3a and seizures impair sociability by repressing VTA Cbln1. Nature. 2017; 15 March.(*co-first author)
- Nong Y*, Stoppel DC*, Johnson MA*, Boillot M, Todorovic J, Zhou XY, Nadler MJS, Rodriguez C, Huo Y, Nagakura I, Kasper EM, Anderson MP. UBE3A and transsynaptic complex NRXN1-CBLN1-GluD1 in a hypothalamic VMHvl-arcuate feedback circuit regulates aggression. bioRxiv, 2023 Mar. 1:2023.02.28.530462. doi: 10.1101/2023.02.28.530462, (*co-first author).
Huu Tho Nguyen, PhD
Research Scientist
Email: hxn292@case.edu
ORCiD:
Tho is a Research Scientist who received his PhD from Kyoto Institute of Technology in 2015. He completed postdoctoral training at NICHD/NIH and served as a Research Fellow at NIMH/NIH from 2016 to 2025. His research focuses on using high-throughput technologies including single-cell RNA-seq, single-cell ATAC-seq, and spatial transcriptomics-together with genetic, chemogenetic, optogenetic manipulations to address fundamental questions in human brain development and the mechanisms underlying neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Location
Wolstein Research Building, Room 6014C
2103 Cornell Road, Cleveland, OH 44106
Contact
Christine A. Dolinar
Senior Executive Assistant
UHHS HDI Direct Admin-10157
Christine.Dolinar@harringtondiscovery.org
Phone: 216-844-0461
Research Projects
Molecular-Circuit Mechanisms and Therapeutics for Immune and Genetic Autisms:
- UBE3A underlies a genetic autism due to idic15/dup15q acting in the nucleus to cause behavioral symptoms and converging and synergizing with epilepsy to repress expression of synapse organizer CBLN1 to break autism gene-rich NRXN1-CBLN1-GRID1 transsynaptic complex (Smith et al. Sci. Trans. Med. 2011; Krishnan et al. Nature 2017; Nong et al. bioRxiv 2023)
- Molecular pathway overlap of sporadic (immune) autism and genetic autisms
- Sociability Circuits: Ventral tegmental area (VTA) glutamatergic neurons drive social behavior where UBE3A reduces CBLN1 to breaks glutamatergic synapse and impair sociability (Smith et al. Sci. Trans. Med. 2011; Krishnan et al. Nature 2017)
- Aggression/Irritability Circuits: Hypothalamic feedback inhibitory arcuate AgRP/NPY neurons inhibit irritability/aggression where UBE3A reduces CBLN1 to break a collateral glutamatergic synapses from aggression driving ventromedial hypothalamic neurons in the ventrolateral subdivision to arcuate AgRP/NPY neurons that provide feedback inhibition (Nong et al. bioRxiv 2023).
Molecular Mechanisms and Therapeutics for Central and Peripheral Axonal Diseases
Genetic neurodevelopmental disease resulting from MAPK8IP3 truncations and missense mutations
Human Brain Evolution Molecular Mechanisms
Human-specific SINE-VNTR-ALU (SVA) retrotransposon in microcephaly gene CDK5RAP2 intron represses its expression to slow progenitor to neuron maturation, potentially contributing to the slowed maturation, enlarged brain, and advanced cognitive and sensorimotor functions in human relative to their closest living relative the chimpanzee. Discovered the function of founding SVA-lncRNA gene family member, AK057321, a gene duplicated in rare cases of autism. It forms RNA:DNA heteroduplexes with genomic SVA sequences and decoy binds SVA repressive KRAB domain zinc finger transcription factor ZNF91 to release the CDK5RAP2 gene repression. SVA retrotransposon and SVA-lncRNA gene regulatory system regulates human genes underlying intellectual, social, and language abilities providing new insights into the genetic basis of human evolution. (Nadler et al. Commun. Biol. 2023).
Identify, Resolve Molecular-Circuit Mechanisms, and Develop Therapeutics for Unrecognized CD8 T-cell- based Behavioral Brain Diseases:
- CD8 cytotoxic T-cell immunity targeting hypothalamic feeding circuits in obesity (~40% of cases) (Ahrendsen et al. Acta. Neuropath. Comm. 2023)
- CD8 cytotoxic T-cell immunity targeting circuits in suicide and depression
- CD8 cytotoxic T-cell immunity targeting astrocyte glia limitans in autism (~65% of cases). (DiStasio et al. Ann. Neurol. 2019)
- Others
Lab Members:
Paola Loreto Palacio
MD, Pathology Resident
Email: paola.loretopalacio@case.edu
ORCiD: 0000-0003-1706-7896
Roman Boskovoynikov
PhD student, BSTP program
Email: rmv59@case.edu
ORCiD:
Roman, a Pathology Ph.D. student at CWRU (since 2024), likes using critical thinking and hands-on approaches to come up with ideas and establish experiments that get us practical data. At the Anderson lab, he focuses on the aggression brain circuitry and exploration of rare neurodevelopmental disease.
Brooke Mangano
PhD student
Email: brooke.mangano@case.edu
ORCiD: 0000-0002-4903-5779
Brooke is a first-year PhD student who graduated from the University of Georgia in December 2024 with Bachelor's Degrees in Biomedical Physiology, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology. Her goal is to make progress in the medical field through translational research. She aims to focus on epigenetics and pharmacology to find treatments for behavioral neurological disorders such as autism, depression, and anxiety.
Sanjana Kumar
Undergraduate Researcher
Email: sanjana.kumar3@case.edu
Sanjana Kumar is a sophomore majoring in Neuroscience with a minor in Psychology. She is interested in exploring the genes and immunological mechanisms linked to neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, and how these findings can be translated into clinical application to eventually treat neurological diseases. In the lab, she is interested in the MAPK8IP3 project along with studying genes linked to autism, aggression and/or suicidal ideation.
Maya Najm
Undergraduate Researcher
Email: mtn62@case.edu
Maya Najm is a junior Neuroscience major with minors in Chemistry and Spanish. In her free time, she loves playing the piano, drawing, and dancing. She has past experience doing research at the Cleveland Clinic optimizing High-Iintesity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) treatments of essential tremor. She is most interested in the obesity projects ongoing in the lab.
Aditi Bohre
Undergraduate Researcher
Email: amb580@case.edu
Aditi Bohre is a sophomore majoring in Neuroscience with a minor in Chemistry. Her research interests include research focusing on circuits involved in psychiatric and neurological conditions. In the lab, she is interested in projects related to SVA retrotransposons and obesity.
Inaya Chowdury
Undergraduate Researcher
Email: iec21@case.edu
Inaya Chowdury is a first-year Biology major with a minor in Psychology. She has previously done research on adolescents with somatic anxiety, and she is interested in learning more about neuroscience, behavior, and neurological disease pathology. In the lab, she is working on the analysis of SVA retrotransposon-containing genes implicated in neurodevelopment.
Saranya Gadwala
Undergraduate Researcher
Email: ssg125@case.edu
Saranya Gadwala is a sophomore Neuroscience major and a Bioethics minor. She is interested in topics such as neurodegenerative diseases, appetite, attention networks, and memory. She is especially interested in projects that combine wet lab methods, as she has previous experience with immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, cryosectioning, and microscope imaging.
Ryo Vanderpool
Undergraduate Researcher
Email: rjv45@case.edu
Ryo Vanderpool is a senior Neuroscience major ont he pre-med track with minors in Chemistry and Computer Science. His interests are in molecular and cellular neuroscience, especially the various mechanisms within neurons and how dysfunction at these levels can contribute to neurological disorders and disease. He is also intrigued by the intersection of neuroscience and computer science, and how computational tools and data analysis can help answer research questions. Furthermore, he is also interested in therapeutic approaches targeting disease mechanisms at the molecular level such as gene-editing strategies with CRISPR.
Sophia Szrek de Sousa Pereira
Undergraduate Researcher
Email: sxs3406@case.edu
Sophia Szrek de Sousa Pereira is a sophomore majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Chemistry with strong interests in cancer, genetic, and pharmacological research. She has previously worked on projects including shifting perspectives on aging, and developing a GenAI platform to aid small, community-based organizations. In the lab, she is interested in studying genes linked to neurodevelopmental diseases, precision genetics in behavioral circuit disease, and autoimmune diseases that impact behavioral neuronal circuits.