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Kaixiong (Calvin) Ye

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Assistant Professor
PhD (2015) Cornell University

YE Lab Website

Graduate students:

Lu Wang (Genetics; 01/2024-)

Yueqi Lu (Genetics; 01/2024-)

Saurav Kumar Choudhary (Bioinformatics; 01/2023-)

Susan Adanna Ihejirika (Bioinformatics; 01/2022-)

Huifang Xu (Genetics; 01/2022-)

Shuang Yang (Genetics; 08/2019-)

Yitang Sun (Genetics; 09/2019-)

Michael Francis (Bioinformatics; 06/2019-12/2022; Graduated)

Research Interests:

My research interest lies in Nutritional Genomics, a new interdisciplinary field bridging Nutritional Sciences and Human Genomics. I am interested in identifying genetic variants that historically helped human populations adapt to local diets and currently underlie individual differences in nutrient metabolism and metabolic disease risks. In the long run, I hope to develop statistical methods that integrate genomic information to personalize our dietary recommendations (Personalized Nutrition).  Current research topics in my lab include:

1. Genetic adaptation to diet during human evolution (Population Genetics); 

2. Evolution of metabolic genes and complex metabolic traits (Comparative and Population Genetics);

3. Genetic basis of metabolic diseases (Quantitative Genetics; Genetic Epidemiology);

4. Gene-diet interaction in metabolic diseases (Quantitative Genetics; Genetic Epidemiology);

5. Molecular mechanism of genetic variants (Molecular Genetics); 

6. Bioinformatic analysis of omics data (Bioinformatics);

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Selected Publications:

Francis M, Li C, Sun Y, Zhou J, Li X, Brenna JT, Ye K^. Genome-wide association study of fish oil supplementation on lipid traits in 81,246 individuals reveals new gene-diet interaction loci. PLOS Genetics. (2021)

Zhou J, Sun Y, Huang W, Ye K^. Altered blood cell traits underlie a major genetic locus of severe COVID-19. Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences. (2021)

Zhou J, Liu C, Sun Y, Huang W, Ye K^. Cognitive disorders associated with hospitalization of COVID-19: Results from an observational cohort study. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity (2020)

Zhou J, Liu C, Francis M, Sun Y, Ryu MS, Grider A, Ye K^. The Causal Effects of Blood Iron and Copper on Lipid Metabolism Diseases: Evidence from Phenome-wide Mendelian Randomization Study. Nutrients. (2020)

Ye K, Gao F, Wang D, Bar-Yosef O, Keinan A. Dietary adaptation of FADS genes in Europe varied across time and geography. Nature Ecology and Evolution (2017)

Kothapalli KSD*, Ye K*, Gadgil MS, et al. Positive selection on a regulatory insertion–deletion polymorphism in FADS2 influences apparent endogenous synthesis of arachidonic acid. Molecular Biology and Evolution (2016).

Ye K*, Cao C*, Lin X, O'Brien KO, Gu Z. Natural selection on HFE in Asian populations contributes to enhanced non-heme iron absorption. BMC Genetics (2015).

Ye K^, Lu J, Ma F, Keinan A, Gu Z^. Extensive pathogenicity of mitochondrial heteroplasmy in healthy human individuals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2014).

Ye K^, Lu J, Raj SM, Gu Z^. Human expression QTLs are enriched in signals of environmental adaptation. Genome Biology and Evolution (2013).

Ye K & Gu Z. Recent advances in understanding the role of nutrition in human genome evolution. Advances in Nutrition (2011).
 

Articles Featuring Kaixiong (Calvin) Ye

University of Georgia researcher Kaixiong Ye has received a Maximizing Investigators Research Award from the National Institutes of Health. The nearly $2 million, five-year award will support efforts to characterize gene-environment…

Fish oil supplements are a billion-dollar industry built on a foundation of purported, but not proven, health benefits. Now, new research from a team led by a University of Georgia scientist indicates that taking fish oil only provides health benefits if…

A team in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences Department of Genetics, led by Assistant Professor Kaixiong Ye and his postdoc, Jingqi Zhou, has published a long-term study of more than 500,000 participants investigating the respective…

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