Dr. Jason X.-J. Yuan Appointed Associate Vice President for Translational Health Sciences at the Arizona Health Sciences Center

Jason X.-J. Yuan, MD, PhD, an internationally recognized leader in pulmonary vascular disease research, has been appointed associate vice president for translational health sciences at the Arizona Health Sciences Center at the University of Arizona.

Dr. Yuan, who joined the UA May 1, reports to Joe G.N. “Skip” Garcia, MD, UA senior vice president for health sciences.

“Dr. Yuan will provide critical leadership in the development of highly impactful and sustainable translational health strategies, while creating nurturing research environments for training physician-scientists in basic, translational and clinical research,” said Dr. Garcia. “He will be integral to our efforts to expedite AHSC research consistent with the UA’s Never Settle strategic plan,” Dr. Garcia added.

Dr. Yuan will advance AHSC research, including developing novel, high-impact training programs and centralized research and technical “core” facilities, in collaboration with AHSC deans, clinical department heads, institute and center directors, the University of Arizona Health Network, and key internal and external AHSC stakeholders.

Dr. Yuan also joins the faculty of the UA College of Medicine – Tucson as professor of medicine with a joint appointment as professor of physiology. He will direct his highly competitive and innovative research program in translational and clinical pulmonary hypertension and vascular medicine, working with research groups across the UA campus. In addition, he will establish a new Division of Translational and Regenerative Medicine to enhance the translational regenerative medicine research at the UA. (Regenerative medicine involves medical therapies that repair, replace or regenerate cells, tissues or organs damaged by disease, accident or aging or resulting from congenital defects.)

“I am very excited to work with colleagues at the Arizona Health Sciences Center. The students, trainees, faculty, facilities and research environment at the UA provide an excellent opportunity to develop and enhance translational research programs and initiatives in health sciences,” said Dr. Yuan. “The research productivity in biomedicine and health sciences play a critical role in fulfilling the University’s mission and future goals. With the strong support and great vision from the leadership and the outstanding faculty, we are in the right time and right place to make the Arizona Health Sciences Center an internationally and nationally recognized academic research center.”

As a physician-scientist, Dr. Yuan’s research interests include pulmonary vascular pathophysiology and pathogenic mechanisms of pulmonary vascular disease, including idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary hypertension associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, obstructive sleep apnea, sickle cell disease and scleroderma.

Prior to his appointment, Dr. Yuan was professor of medicine and pharmacology, vice chair for scholarly activities for the Department of Medicine, director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Translational Research Program in the Institute for Personalized Respiratory Medicine, and director of the Program in Pulmonary Vascular Disease and Right Heart Function in the Center for Cardiovascular Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He also has held faculty positions in the Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, and the Department of Physiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore.

Dr. Yuan’s professional memberships include the American Thoracic Society and he is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He also is a fellow of the American Heart Association, American Physiological Society and American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has served as adviser and reviewer with many national and international associations, including the National Institutes of Health, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and National Science Foundation. He also was a member of the 2012 review panel of the site visit of the Integrative Cardiac Health Program at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, American Institute for Biological Sciences and Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) of the Department of Defense.

He has been an invited lecturer at conferences and a visiting lecturer at institutions around the world. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including an American Heart Association Established Investigator Award, a Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute Achievement Award and a 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship Award. He is co-holder of a patent, “Regulating Expression of Transient Receptor Potential Channel Genes,” with C.V. Remillard, L.J. Rubin and Y. Yu.

He is co-editor with Dr. Garcia, C.A. Hales, S. Rich, S.L. Archer and J.B. West of the Textbook of Pulmonary Vascular Disease (2011, Springer) and is the author of numerous books and book chapters and more than 190 scientific journal articles. His articles in the American Journal of Physiology (AJP)-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology are among the top 10 cited articles for 1990-1999 and 2000-2011, and also are among the top 10 cited articles for 2000-2011 in AJP-Heart and Circulatory Physiology. He is editor-in-chief of Pulmonary Circulation, deputy editor and associate editor of the American Journal of Physiology Cell Physiology and section editor of Vascular Diseases of the Lung in PanVascular Medicine (2nd edition). He serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Physiology Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, American Journal of Physiology Heart and Circulatory Physiology, and Circulation Research.

Dr. Yuan received his medical degree in 1983 from Suzhou Medical College, Suzhou, China, where he also completed an internship at Suzhuo Medical College Hospital and Suzhou Third City Hospital, followed by a research fellowship in the Departments of Physiology and Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore from 1988-1991. He earned his doctorate in 1993 in a joint training program with the University of Maryland and Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.

Media Contact: Jean Spinelli