Yoko Brigitte Wang, PhD

Assistant Research Professor

  • B.Sc, 2016, University of Surabaya, Indonesia
  • PhD, 2022, University of Adelaide, Australia
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, 2023, UT Health San Antonio, Texas, USA
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, 2023 – 2026, University of Missouri, Missouri, USA

Email: yokowang@missouri.edu

Office: Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center

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RESEARCH INTERESTS

My research focuses on the neural organization of interorgan communication, with an emphasis on vagal circuits and their roles in autonomic control of cardiometabolic function. The vagus nerve provides a two-way road for the brain-body connection. It senses internal stimuli via vagal sensory neurons and transmits the information to the brainstem. In the brainstem, these signals are integrated and relayed to downstream neurons, including vagal motor neurons that generate output to regulate organ function. While pathways from and to individual organs have been well characterized, how the vagus nerve coordinates interorgan communication remains uncharted territory.

In my current project, I explore the gut-brain-heart axis to understand how meal-related cues from the gut are integrated into cardiac regulation in the brainstem via vagal circuits. By combining viral tracing, patch-clamp electrophysiology, opto/chemogenetics and in vivo telemetry approaches, I examine how the gut-derived signals shape cardiac function, and how metabolic challenges, such as a high-fat diet, alter this pathway. My long-term goal is to identify neural mechanisms of interorgan communication that underlie cardiometabolic disease, and to develop new integrative therapeutic strategies.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
  • Boychuk CR, Wang YB*. Vagal GABAergic signaling in autonomic control of cardiometabolic function. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. 2026 Apr 1;330(4):C1022-C1030. doi: 10.1152/ajpcell.00790.2025. Epub 2026 Mar 11. PMID: 41811137.
  • Wang YB, Dow KE, Boychuk CR*. GABAAR-δ-subunit mediates increased GABAergic inhibition in cardiac DMV neurons after high-fat diet. iScience. 2025 Mar 22;28(4):112268. DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.112268. PMID: 40264791.
  • Wang YB†, Saunders SE†, Campbell JN, Boychuk CR*. Cardiac vagal motor neurons. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2025 Jun 25;93:103068. DOI: 10.1016/j.conb.2025.103068. PMID: 40570503.
  • Fekete ÉM, Gomez J, Ghobrial M, Kaminski K, Muskus PC, Boychuk CR, Hantke Guixa A, Vazirabad I, Xie M, Ganiyu A, Golosova D, Mathieu NM, Wang YB, Lu KT, Wackman KK, Brozoski DT, Mouradian GC, Hodges MR, Segar JL, Grobe JL, Sigmund CD, Nakagawa P. Definitive Evidence for the Identification and Function of Renin-Expressing Cholinergic Neurons in the Nucleus Ambiguus. Hypertension. 2025 Feb;82(2):282-292. DOI: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.124.23740. PMID: 39618396.
  • Jalil M*, MacMillan MK, Gutierrez VA, Crook ME, Coverdell TC, Dever A, Cox KS, Stornetta DS, Wang YB, Schwalbe DC, Singh A, VanderVoort L, Boychuk CR, Abbott SBG*#, and Campbell JN*#. Molecular Disambiguation of Heart Rate Control by the Nucleus Ambiguus. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2023 Dec 17:2023.12.16.571991. doi: 10.1101/2023.12.16.571991.
  • Wang YB*, Page AJ, Gill TK, Melaku YA. The association between diet quality, plant-based diets, systemic inflammation, and mortality risk: findings from NHANES. Eur J Nutr. 2023 Oct;62(7):2723-2737. doi: 10.1007/s00394-023-03191-z. Epub 2023 Jun 22. PMID: 37347305; PMCID: PMC10468921.
  • Wang YB, de Lartigue G, Page AJ*. Dissecting the Role of Subtypes of Gastrointestinal Vagal Afferents. Front Physiol. 2020 Jun 11;11:643. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2020.00643. PMID: 32595525; PMCID: PMC7300233.

NIH Bibliography https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/yoko.wang.1/bibliography/public/

Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=pG10sg4AAAAJ&hl=en