Biography

George Yap obtained his BS and MS degrees from the University of the Philippines and his PhD from McGill University in Montreal, under the supervision of Dr. Mary M. Stevenson. In 1994, he joined the Immunobiology Section of the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the NIH in Bethesda MD and worked under the supervision of Dr. Allen Cheever and Dr. Alan Sher. At NIH, he dissected the roles of IL-12, IFN-gamma and TNF-alpha in the host immune response to Toxoplasma gondii. This work led to an appreciation for the role of IL-12 in the maintenance of Th1 immunity and for the role of iNOS-independent mechanisms of cell-autonomous resistance of hemopoietic and parenchymal tissue cells to intracellular parasitism. In 2000, Dr. Yap joined the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Brown University in Providence Rhode Island, where the taught immunology to Brown undergraduates and established his independent research laboratory. His laboratory discovered Tyk2 as a genetic determinant of disease susceptiblity and identified a novel mechanism for intracellular killing of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. In 2007, Dr. Yap joined the Center for Immunity and Inflammation at NJMS where he continues his research on T cell and innate immune responses to Toxoplasma gondii. He has served as a Regular Member of Innate Immunity and Inflammation Study Section of the NIH.