Zhenyu Yue

Zhenyu Yue is a neuroscientist who studies cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurological disorders, with an emphasis on autophagy–lysosome biology in neurons and glia. He holds the Alex and Shirley Aidekman Research Professorship and is Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he directs the Center for Parkinson's Disease Neurobiology and leads a laboratory investigating mechanisms of proteostasis in central nervous system, neuronal vulnerability, cellular senescence, and neuroinflammation.

Education and career Yue received a B.S. in cell biology from Wuhan University and an M.S. in vertebrate genetics from the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

He earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology and biochemistry from UMDNJ–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (now part of Rutgers) and trained as a postdoctoral fellow in molecular biology and neuroscience at The Rockefeller University as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral fellow. Early in his career he held research and faculty positions in China before joining Mount Sinai, where he progressed from assistant professor to full professor and laboratory director.

He also serves as principal investigator on major research programmes, including an NIH-supported Udall Center for Parkinson's Disease Research at Mount Sinai.

Research and career Zhenyu Yue's research focuses on the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

His work has been influential in elucidating the role of autophagy, a cellular process responsible for degrading and recycling intracellular components in maintaining neuronal health. Yue reported the first mammalian autophagy gene (BECN1) function in vivo. Yue's laboratory identified key regulators of autophagy within the Beclin 1–hVPS34 complex (class III PI3K), including Atg14L, Rubicon, and NRBF2, which are essential for controlling autophagosome formation and maturation.

Yue and his collaborators have also investigated autophagy receptors involved in neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. Their studies on SQSTM1/p62 clarified its role in clearing polyubiquitinated protein aggregates associated with Lewy bodies, tau tangles, and huntingtin inclusions.

More recently, his group identified AKAP11— a significant genetic risk factor for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia—as an autophagy receptor that regulates PKA-RI complex degradation through autophagy and a modulator of GSK3 activity.

His laboratory has investigated molecular pathways relevant to Parkinson's disease, including those involving LRRK2 and synaptojanin-1. Yue's research demonstrated that vitamin B12 can modulate LRRK2 kinase activity through allosteric regulation. The Yue Lab integrates multidisciplinary strategies to map the cell-type-specific transcriptomic landscape of the human substantia nigra, elucidate the mechanisms of neuronal subtype-specific vulnerability, and develop molecular biomarkers of Parkinson's disease.

Awards In 2008, Yue was honored with the Faculty Council Award for Academic Excellence by Mount Sinai. Yue holds the Alex and Shirley Aidekman Family Neurological Research Professorship at Mount Sinai. Yue has been a recipient of the Sundaram Research Scholar Award from the Mount Sinai Medical Center in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Yue has been a member of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society, since March 2024.

Selected publications

Personal life Yue has been married to Yuko Kawai. They have two children.