Yan Chen

Dr. Chen is a Medical Microbiologist with Unity Health Toronto and provides consultation to clinicians on diagnostics and treatment of infection.

She is devoted to quality improvement of microbiology laboratory service at Unity Health Toronto through working closely with the laboratory operational team and clinical teams.

Dr. Chen is also a staff physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Unity Health Toronto- St. Joseph's Health Centre. She is involved in both inpatient service and outpatient clinic.

Dr. Chen completed her medical degree in Dalian, China followed by Medical Microbiology training in Canada at the University of Toronto.

She holds a Master of Science degree in Immunology from University of Toronto.

Research Synopsis

I have interest in several research areas, including mycology, clinical utilities of proteomics and laboratory biosafety and biosecurity.

One of my research focuses is rapid diagnostics of fungal infection and detection of anti-fungal resistance employing advanced technologies such as MALDI ToF MS and molecular technologies.

Another research interest of mine is application of proteomics for accurate speciation of organisms, detection of antimicrobial resistance or outbreak investigation.

Recent Publications

Zhu, A. , An K. R., Chen, Y., Rowsell C., Goode L., Ko, M. (2020). A case of primary pulmonary Schizophyllum commune empyema treated with video-assisted thoracoscopic decortication. General Thoracic Cardiovascular Surgery. Accepted: 27 September 2020

Chen, Y., McTaggart, L. R., Poopalarajah, R., & Kus J. V. (2018). Incubation time and culture media impact success of identification of Nocardia spp. by MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry. Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease, 92 (4), 270-274.

Chen, Y., Porter, V., Mubareka, S., Kotowich, L., & Simor, A. E. (2015). Rapid Identification of bacteria directly from positive blood cultures by use of a serum separator tube, smudge plate preparation, and Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization–Time of Flight mass spectrometry. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 53 (10), 3349-3352.

Turnidge J. D., Alastruey-Izquierdo, A., Botterel F., Cantón, E., Castro, C., Chen Y. et al., & Espinel-Ingroff, A. V. (2018) Method-dependent epidemiological cutoff values (ECVs) for detection of triazole resistance in Candida, other yeast and Aspergillus species for the SYO colorimetric broth and Etest agar diffusion methods, SYO & Etest Triazole ECVs for Aspergillus and Candida. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy,63 (1), e01651-18.

Gomez-Torres, J., Nimir, J. A., Cluett, J., Aggarwal, A., Elsayed, S., Chen, Y., et al., & Fittipaldi, N. (2017). Human Case of Streptococcus suis Disease, Ontario, Canada. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 23(12), 2107–2109.

Chui, L., Christianson, S., Alexander, D., Arseneau, V., Bekal, S., Berenger, B., Chen, Y., et al. (2018). Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network: Guidelines for the laboratory detection of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (O157 and non-O157) in Canadian Laboratories.

Appointments

Medical Microbiologist, Division of Microbiology, Unity Health Toronto
Staff Physician, Division of Infectious Diseases, Unity Health Toronto - St. Joseph’s Health Centre