Welcome to the Yan lab!
We conduct exciting research to improve human reproductive health.
About Us
Who are we?
Our discoveries
What do we do?
We are a group of reproductive biologists passionate about improving human reproductive health and the health of our next generations. Our lab is based at the Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA.
What do we do?
Our discoveries
What do we do?
We conduct both basic and translational research aiming to understand fundamental mechanisms underlying mammalian reproduction and to develop novel diagnostics and therapeutics. One of the ongoing projects is to investigate how quality of sperm and oocytes affects health and disease susceptibility in offspring.
Our discoveries
Our discoveries
Our discoveries
We have discovered many fundamental cellular and molecular mechanisms that control sperm production and male fertility. For example, we first defined how sperm neck/connecting piece is developed, which helps us understand headless sperm syndrome in infertile men. We also first discovered that defects in efferent ductal motile cilia can cause male infertility.
Latest Lab News
- 12/02/2021: Dr. Yan delivered a seminar entitled "Sperm RNA-mediated epigenetic inheritance: fact or artifact?" at the University of California, Irvine.
- 07/30/2021: Dr. Yan gave a talk in the virtual meeting “Gametes meet at the time of COVID19” entitled "Triptonide is a reversible non-hormonal male contraceptive agent in mice and monkeys”.
- 05/27/2021: Dr. Yan delivered a seminar talk entitled "Triptonide is a promising male birth control pill for men" to the Center for Biomedical Research at Population Council in New York.
- 05/26/2021: Our work on oviductal motile cilia functions was officially published in PNAS. Thanks to our collaborators (Drs. Sean Ward and Grant Hennig).
- 04/30/2021: Our finding that Dnmt2-null sperm block the transmission of a paramutant phenotype through oocytes has been accepted for publication in the "Beyond Genes" Special Issue of Biology of Reproduction.
- 04/14/2021: Dr. Yan gave a webinar on male non-hormonal contraceptive development for the MCI's Lemonade Stand.
- 03/31/2021: Our paper reporting a small RNA annotation pipeline, called AASRA, is officially published in Biology of Reproduction. Since it was posted online as a preprint in 2017, it has been cited 13 times.
- 02/23/2021: Our paper on triptonide as a reversible non-hormonal male contraceptive is out. This is the first compound that had been tested on both mice and monkeys to be effective and safe in inducing reversible male infertility.
- 12/21/2020: Our letter to the editor entitled "Both Cauda and Caput Epididymal Sperm Are Capable of Supporting Full-Term Development in FVB and CD-1 Mice" is out in Developmental Cell. Thanks to Drs. Yanagimachi and Ward at Univ. Hawaii for the collaboration!
- 12/04/2021: Dr. Yan talks about research projects supported by donations received during the annual Lundquist Institute's Giving Week.
- 10/09/2020: Dr. Yan served as a Session Chair and a speaker in Beyond Genes: The Online Conference on Non-genetic Inheritance in Human Disease. Talk title: “Dnmt2 is required for transmission of epimutations through female germline”.
- 10/01/2020: Dr. Yan spoke in the Symposium on Solving Challenges in Contraceptive Discovery and Innovation, organized by SSR and ISE and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Talk title: “SD-1 is a reversible non-hormonal male contraceptive agent”.
- 08/06/2020: In a recent piece published in Nevada Today, Dr. Yan comments on Dr. Kent Sanders, who won the 2020 NSHE Regents' Distinguished Researcher Award.
- 06/23/2020: Renowned reproductive biology expert Wei Yan, MD, PhD, leads a class of recruits.
- 03/06/2020: Dr. Yan won the 2020 Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) Regents' Research Award (mid-career).
- 10/16/2019: Dr. Yan was invited to give a plenary talk entitled "Motile Ciliopathy Is A New Cause of Male Infertility" at the 2019 American Society for Reproductive Medicine Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA.
- 09/09/2019: Dr. Yan delivered a talk entitled " Small RNAs as the mediator of epigenetic inheritance" at the UNR Molecular Biosciences Symposium (formerly the George G Bierkamper Graduate Student Retreat).
- 07/17/2019: Dr. Yan, Kyle, Yue, Hayden, and Dr. Song attended the SSR 52nd Annual Conference in San Jose, CA.
- 05/14/2019: Zongliang Chang successfully defended his dissertation entitled "Development of SD-1 into a non-hormonal male contraceptive drug". Congrats!
- 04/30/2019: The Male Contraceptive Initiative, which funds our contraceptive development project, visited the Yan lab.
- 04/27/2019: Drs. Yan and Schegg presented our male contraceptive research in the Special Social Event: Uppers and Downers at the Terry Lee Wells Nevada Discovery Museum.
- 04/17/20219: Kyle's paper entitled "Insertion of a chimeric retrotransposon sequence in mouse Axin1 locus causes metastable kinky tail phenotype" has been accepted for publication in Mobile DNA. Congrats!
- 04/17/2019: Dr. Yan gave a talk at the Annual Dinner of the Center for Advanced Studies (CAS).
- 03/28/2019: Dr. Jacquetta Trasler from McGill University visited our lab and delivered a great talk entitled “Creating and Perturbing Epigenetic Patterns in Germ Cells and Embryos: Implications for the Next Generation”.
- 03/06/2019: Dr. Yan gave a seminar talk entitled "Functions of Motile Cilia in The Male Reproductive System" at the University of Rochester, NY.
- 01/22/2019: A commentary on our motile cilia paper has come out! Thanks to Dr. Cheryl S. Rosenfeld for sharing her insights into the physiological functions of motile cilia.
- 01/15/2019: Our paper on motile cilia of the efferent ducts is out! Thanks to our collaborators! This is teamwork and it would not have been possible without collaborations.
Press
- Gynecology for Guys: Male Birth Control
- Cilia in fallopian tube essential for egg but not embryo transport.
- Tiny hairs move eggs down the fallopian tube.
- Cilia in fallopian tube essential for egg but not embryo transport.
- Lundquist investigator Wei Yan solves longstanding fallopian tube transport debate.
- Could a Non-Hormonal Male Contraceptive Be on the Horizon?
- Nature: new compound for male contraceptive pill | EurekAlert ...
- Scientists Find Natural Compounds for Male Contraceptives ...
- Scientists spell out an innovative strategy for a male ...
- Triptonide from Chinese Herb Exhibits Reversible Male ...
- Natural Compound Safe as Male Contraceptive Pill - Medindia
- Natural compound acts as the reversible male contraceptive pill.
- Herbal Extract Promising as Male Contraceptive in Animal Trials.
- Nature: New compound for male contraceptive pill.
- Nature Communications Publishes Paper by Lundquist Institute Investigator Dr. Wei Yan and Colleagues on New Promising Compound for Male Contraceptive Pill.
- Renowned reproductive biology expert Wei Yan, MD, PhD, leads class of recruits.
- The Lundquist Institute News Release on the new P50 Center.
- KTVN Channel 2 Health Watch: Lifestyle and Sperm Quality.
- UNR Med receives $7 million NIH grant award to fund new National Center for Translational Research in Reproduction and Infertility.
- Research on sperm transportation reveals new cause of male infertility.
- Cilia beat to an unexpected rhythm in male reproductive tract, study in mice reveals.
- Cilia don’t transport; they keep the sperm dancing.
- UNR Med’s Dr. Yan honored with 2018 SSR Research Award.
- Dr. Yan was elected as a Fellow of the American Society for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS).
- Dr. Wei Yan received the UNR 2017 Outstanding Researcher Award.
- Dr. Wei Yan named the University of Nevada, Reno Foundation Professor.