Dayoung Oh, Ph.D.

Dayoung Oh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine/Touchstone Diabetes Center at UTSW. She received her B.S. in Biology for Chonnam National University, Korea and her Ph.D. in Molecular Neuroendocrinology from Chonnam National University under the supervision of Dr. Jae Young Seong, where she made several important contributions to understanding the diverse signaling pathways of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and ligand identification for orphan GPCRs using a high throughput system.

In 2007, Dayoung joined the laboratory of Dr. Jerrold Olefsky as a postdoctoral fellow at UC San Diego in La Jolla, CA. There she discovered GPR120 as an omega-3 fatty acid receptor that mediates anti-inflammatory and insulin sensitizing effects, and has published a number of high impact papers on the subjects. In 2016, she joined the faculty at UTSW as an assistant professor. Her lab has had a sharp focus on the role of various GPCRs in the fields of obesity, inflammation, type 2 diabetes, and aging-related metabolic syndromes. The Oh lab has been using various biochemical and physiological approaches including using GPCR KO animals (global and tissue-specific), molecular biology, nucleic acid/protein biochemistry, and eukaryotic cell-based studies with the long term goal to not only elucidate how GPCRs work in regulating metabolism, but also to identify new avenues for developing therapeutics to treat metabolic syndrome.

In her free time, Dayoung enjoys spending time cooking and trekking with her family, and watching movies (mostly children’s movies with her boy!).

Xuenan (Nancy) Sun Ph.D.

Xuenan Sun joined the Oh lab in 2018, and concentrates on functional characterization of GPR84 in insulin resistance. Xuenan received her Ph.D in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2018, where she was involved in studying the role of nuclear receptors in immune cells, on cardiovascular disease.

In her free time, she enjoys music, swimming and watching movies.

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Ayanna Cobb

I learned my way around the ARC for 6 years with my last position as a Chief Animal technician and later transitioned into the Oh lab in 2021. I assist in basic research techniques, lab maintenance, oversee colony management, bioinformatics, and data entry. In my free time, I enjoy trail runs, road trips, cooking, and spending time with my two cats, Coi and Niko.

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