People

Won Jae Huh completed his medical education at the Seoul National University in South Korea. Then he pursued Ph.D. training in Developmental Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. His Ph.D. thesis work with Dr. Jason Mills focused on the transcriptional regulation of gastric chief cell differentiation. Won Jae completed his residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, followed by fellowship in Gastrointestinal and Liver Pathology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He did his postdoctoral research training on EGFR and Notch signaling crosstalk in gastric premalignant conditions with Dr. Robert Coffey at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Won Jae is a recipient of the NIDDK Clinical Scientist Career Development Award. He was an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center prior to joining the Department of Pathology at Yale School of Medicine in 2021.

Eries Jay Moreno is a first-year Pathology and Molecular Medicine PhD student in the Huh Research Group in the Department of Pathology at Yale University. Raised in Guam, he earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Guam, where he double majored in biomedical science and psychology. Prior to starting graduate school, he worked at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Yogen Kanthi's research group, where he developed in vitro microfluidic assays to study thromboinflammation. He is broadly interested in endothelial–epithelial interactions in gastric tissue, particularly how vascular signaling may influence regeneration and early tumorigenesis. He is currently developing expertise in in vivo mouse models and single-cell RNA sequencing to study how cells coordinate within dynamic tissue environments. Outside of the lab, Eries Jay enjoys biking, dancing, climbing, and spending time with his cats, Theo and Finn.

Jiali is a postgraduate researcher in the Huh Lab in the Department of Pathology at Yale University. Jiali grew up in China, where Jiali completed M.S. in Veterinary Medicine and obtained veterinary license. Jiali's academic background in veterinary medicine has shaped interest in disease mechanisms and biomedical research.Jiali’s current research investigates how EGFR signaling regulates chief cell plasticity during the formation of spasmolytic polypeptide-expressing metaplasia (SPEM), a precancerous gastric lesion. In particular, Jiali studies the role of the Lrig family in controlling chief cell identity, paligenosis, and metaplastic transformation. Beyond gastric biology, Jiali is broadly interested in disease mechanisms and translational therapeutic development, including stem cell-based therapy, organoid systems, extracellular vesicles, drug delivery, liver disease, metabolism, obesity, and cancer biology. Outside the lab, Jiali is a passionate Latin dancer with 15 years of dance experience. Dance has been an important part of Jiali's life, shaping Jiali's discipline, confidence, and sense of expression. In addition to dancing, Jiali hits the gym every day and believes that building and maintaining muscle is one of the key ways to fight aging and stay strong, healthy, and resilient. If you cannot find Jiali in the lab, that means you can find Jiali in PWG. Jiali enjoys a wide range of activities, including dancing, resistance training, snorkeling, climbing, yoga, movies, games, music, and traveling the world. These interests keep Jiali energetic, creative, and open-minded, and they allow Jiali to explore life beyond science with curiosity and enthusiasm. Jiali believes that a good scientist should not only ask rigorous scientific questions, but also remain sensitive to life, people, and the broader human experience.