Kate was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated with a B.S. in Animal Sciences from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Spring 2024. During her undergraduate studies, she was involved in two immunology labs on campus. She continued her education in Fall 2024 at UIUC as a Ph.D. student in Dr. Won’s lab. She is working to understand the therapeutic potential of regulatory T cells during autoimmune myocarditis induced in mouse models.
Yushan Liu was born in China and earned her B.S. in Biology from Illinois Wesleyan University in 2021. As an undergraduate, she worked in Dr. Tyler Schwend’s lab, using the embryonic chick as a model to study corneal regeneration. She went on to receive her M.S. in the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology within the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where she worked in Dr. Sayeepriyadarshini Anakk’s lab investigating the relationship between bile acid synthesis, obesity, and adipogenesis. Yushan is now pursuing her Ph.D. in the Department of Pathobiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine in UIUC. In the Won lab, her research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms underlying lupus myocarditis, with an emphasis on cardiac myosin–specific autoreactive T cells.
A fun fact: Yushan has a blue-tongued skink as a pet.
Yu Fan was born in Taipei, Taiwan. She earned her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree in 2020 and her Master of Science (M.S.) in Pathobiology in 2022 from National Chung Hsing University. During her undergraduate and master’s training, she focused on swine disease and vaccination serological surveillance, the detection of emerging swine pathogens—including porcine circovirus types 3 and 4—and diagnostic approaches for swine diseases. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Dr. Won’s lab, where her research investigates the role of T cells in immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-associated Sjögren’s syndrome, with the goal of identifying T cell-specific peptides involved in disease pathogenesis.
Assistant Professor
Department of Pathobiology
2001 South Lincoln Avenue, Urbana, IL, 61802
Profile: Taejoon Won
My research focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying autoimmune disorders in the heart and developing innovative immunotherapies to treat them.
During my PhD program, I acquired extensive expertise in immunology through research on type 1 diabetes, atopic dermatitis, hypersensitivity, and cancer. As a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University, my research focus shifted toward autoimmunity during cardiovascular diseases such as myocarditis, myocardial infarction, and graft-versus-host disease. As a trainee, I published 36 peer-reviewed journal articles (15 as a first or co-first author) and filed 11 international patents. My contributions to cardiac immunology were recognized with the 2018 Rhett Lundy Research Fellowship Grant from the Myocarditis Foundation and the 2022 Grover M. Hutchins, M.D. Memorial Research Award from Johns Hopkins University.
Currently, my lab investigates how pre-existing autoimmune conditions promote the development of autoreactive T cells in the heart and develops novel cell-based therapies to protect the cardiovascular system from inflammation. Our research also expands to autoimmune disorders affecting other organs, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and Sjögren’s syndrome.
Kacy Bautista is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, majoring in Integrative Biology with a minor in Chemistry. She previously conducted research on motor control in nematodes. In the Won Lab, Kacy’s work focuses on developing heart-specific regulatory T cells in mouse models of autoimmune-induced myocarditis.
Maxwell Straus is an undergraduate student in his senior year in the integrative biology honors program. In the lab, he works on research projects investigating the effects of fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (FLT3L), a major dendritic cell growth factor, on macrophage gene expression. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, learning about immunology, and spending time with family and friends. Max is a pre-med student and hopes to apply what he learns from his research in practice as a physician in the future.