Jin-Young Choi, PhD

Jinyoung Choi is a Research Scientist at the Craft laboratory, Section of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine. Her research is focused on dissecting the mechanism of pathogenesis of systemic autoimmunity, particular interest in lupus nephritis. She hypothesizes that renal infiltrating effector CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells promotes renal cell injury, leading to organ failure. The degree of immune cell infiltration directly correlated to clinical prognosis, yet the nature of the infiltrating cells and their effector capability has not been fully understood. Her research questions include mechanism by which autoreactive CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells differentiate into effector cells that are capable of damaging adjacent tissue, and the factors, soluble mediator and contact-dependent, required for genesis of such cell type, and how they promote renal cell injury.

Dr. Choi emigrated from South Korea to pursue her doctoral work at Oregon State University under the tutelage of Dr. Nancy Kerkvliet. In that laboratory, she studied the mechanism of dioxin-induced immune dysfunction. These compounds, unwanted byproducts produced during chlorinated phenoxy herbicide production, are potent environmental contaminants. After completion of her Ph.D. in 2000, Dr. Choi joined Dr.Joseph Craft’s laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow. At Yale, she has been supported by a fellowship from the Arthritis Foundation to investigate how potentially self-reactive T-cells maintain self-tolerance.