Yilin Yoshida, PhD
Tulane School of Medicine
Dr. Yilin Yoshida is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Section of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Tulane University School of Medicine. Dr. Yoshida earned her MPH from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and PhD from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. After the graduate degrees in New Orleans, she completed a three-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Health Management and Informatics at the University of Missouri – Columbia (MU), concentrating on chronic disease epidemiology. Following the training, Dr. Yoshida was appointed as a Research Assistant Professor in 2018 in MU. In June 2019, she returned to Tulane as a faculty member in the School of Medicine. Dr. Yoshida was a scholar for Tulane’s NIH K12 Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) Program from August 2020 to March 2023. In 2022, she was selected as one of the three podium speakers at the NIH BIRCWH Annual Meeting among over 50 BIRCWH scholars nationwide. Dr. Yoshida’s scientific findings in cardiometabolic epidemiology have been recognized by prestigious professional societies. She received the Young Investigator Award from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in 2021. She was also a finalist for the American Heart Association (AHA) Sandra A. Daugherty Award for Excellence in Cardiovascular Disease or Hypertension Epidemiology and Prevention in 2023. Dr. Yoshida was also a Junior Faculty Awardee from the Southern Society of Clinical Investigations in 2023.
Dr. Yoshida is developing her research program in sex-based diabetes epidemiology, focusing on biobehavioral mechanisms underlying women’s excessive cardiovascular risk in diabetes. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Yoshida has expanded her research in sex differences in COVID-19 outcomes.
Research Goals & Impact
The goal of Dr. Yoshida’s LA CaTS pilot project is to understand sex disparities in COVID-19 severe outcomes. Specifically, Dr. Yoshida and her multidisciplinary collaborative team composed of researchers from Tulane, LSUHSC-NO and Pennington Biomedical Research Center, sought to 1) understand if female sex hormones are protective against COVID-19 hospitalization and death in women, 2) determine the sex-specific role of inflammatory biomarkers and comorbidities in COVID-19 severe outcomes, and 3) assess the racial variations of sex differences in risk or protective factors for COVID-19 severe outcomes. Leveraging local and national EMR databases for COVID-19, Dr. Yoshida's team found that a history of using menopausal hormone therapy use was associated with a reduced risk of hospitalization and mortality in postmenopausal women with COVID-19 (Yoshida et al., Maturitas. 2022). They also found sex differential effect of inflammatory biomarkers and comorbidities on severe outcomes of COVID-19, including ventilator administration, ICU admission, and in-hospital death (Yoshida et al., Biol Sex Differ. 2021; Yoshida et al., BMC Infec Dis. 2022; Yoshida et al., Front Public Health. 2022).
Success Spotlight
Sex (biological constructs) and gender (social constructs) play an important role in disease and medicine. They are modifiers of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality. In the context of diabetes, women have a greater excess risk of cardiovascular disease and renal disease compared to men. In COVID-19, adult men of all ages are at higher risk of severe illness and death than women. The precise reasons for the sex-biases in diabetes and COVID-19 remain unknown. Dr. Yoshida's goal in epidemiological research is to identify biobehavioral mechanisms underlying the sex differences in diabetes, its complications, and COVID-19. My research will help us to better understand sex differences in pathophysiological and psychosocial factors/pathways to the disease outcomes, and ultimately contribute to precision medicine that benefits both women and men.
How LA CaTS Helped
The LACaTS Pilot grant supplementally supported Dr. Yoshida's research in sex differences in cardiometabolic epidemiology. It enabled her to develop preliminary data for federal and foundation grant applications and created an invaluable collaborative network, which is important for her research program development in Louisiana.
Highlighted Publications & Grants
Dr. Yoshida's research is currently supported by the Faculty Development Award from the ADA and a pilot award from the Tulane Center of Sex-Based Biology and Medicine. In addition to the support from LA CaTS Pilot Program and Tulane BIRCWH Program, Dr. Yoshida served as a principal investigator and co-investigator of research grants awarded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, ADA, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).
Selected publications:
Yoshida, Y., Chen, Z., Baudier, R.L., Anderson, A.H., Fonseca, V.A., Mauvais-Jarvis, F. Early Menopause and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Women with or without Type 2 Diabetes: A Pooled Analysis of 9,374 postmenopausal women. Diabetes Care. 2021 Nov;44(11):2564-2572
Yoshida, Y., Chen, Z., Baudier, R.L., Anderson, A.H., Fonseca, V.A., Mauvais-Jarvis, F. Sex difference in progression of metabolic syndrome severity in diabetes development. JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Jul 1;5(7):e2222070. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.22070.
Yoshida, Y., Chen, Z., Fonseca, V., Mauvais-Jarvis, F. Sex Differences in Cardiovascular Risk Associated With Prediabetes and Undiagnosed Diabetes. Am J Prev Med.
Yoshida, Y., Chen, Z., Baudier, R.L., M, Krousel-Wood., Anderson, A.H., Fonseca, V.A., Mauvais-Jarvis, F. Sex differences in the prognostic role of glycemic measures in diabetic cardiovascular disease. Journal of Diabetes