Dr. Riqiang Yan discovered BACE1 by employing a novel bioinformatic approach coupled with enzymatic characterization, and this original discovery was widely recognized by the field and earned him the MetLife award, which is one of the most prestigious recognitions in the AD field. After this original discovery, Dr. Yan conducted extensive cellular and molecular characterizations of both BACE1 and BACE2. His lab has been of one the first to demonstrate how BACE1 and BACE2 differentially cleave amyloid precursor protein (APP). Dr. Yan studied biological functions of BACE1 in vivo and found central and peripheral hypomyelination, spontaneous epileptic seizures, increased hippocampal astrogenesis, and decreased neurogenesis in BACE1-null mice. Dr. Yan discovered that neuregulin-1, neuregulin-3, Jag1, and Jag2 are all BACE1 physiological substrates. His studies have been published in Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Neuroscience, Molecular Psychiatry, Cell Report, EMBO J, Biological Psychiatry, Journal of Neuroscience, etc.

https://health.uconn.edu/yan-lab/