Mass General Cancer Center Porphyria Center Opens
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Dr. Amy Yeung is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a pulmonary and critical care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is Co-Director of the MGH Porphyria Center and specializes in the care of patients with porphyria, including erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) and acute hepatic porphyrias.
Dr. Yeung's clinical and research work focuses on improving the diagnosis, measurement, and treatment of porphyria. She is the principal investigator for multiple investigational clinical trials for EPP. She also leads clinical and translational studies focused on measuring light sensitivity and developing clinical trial outcomes in EPP, including the use of wearable light dosimetry, patient-reported outcomes, and biochemical biomarkers. Her broader porphyria research also includes studies of quality of life, reproductive health, diagnosis, biomarkers, and disease burden across multiple types of porphyria.
She is an investigator and Principal Investigator at the MGH Cutaneous Biology Research Center, where her laboratory studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms of cutaneous phototoxicity in protoporphyria. Her work integrates patient-derived samples, genomic data, cellular models, and functional assays to understand variability in disease severity and identify therapeutic targets.
Dr. Yeung received her MD from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and her MPH in Quantitative Methods from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She completed internal medicine residency at the University of Washington and fellowship training in pulmonary and critical care medicine through the Harvard-MGH/BIDMC program. She works closely with national and international collaborators and with the United Porphyrias Association, a patient advocacy organization. She has EPP herself, which inspired her commitment to advancing porphyria research and patient care.
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Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute: Hematology Oncology
55 Fruit St.
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: 617-724-4000
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Dr. Yeung's research focuses on clinical, translational, and mechanistic studies across the porphyrias, with major areas of emphasis in protoporphyria, acute hepatic porphyrias, and mechanisms of cutaneous phototoxicity. She is the principal investigator for multiple investigational clinical trials for EPP. Her clinical and translational research aims to improve how light sensitivity is measured and understood, using wearable light dosimetry, patient-reported outcomes, biochemical biomarkers, and quantitative clinical endpoints. This work is intended to improve disease monitoring, support clinical trial design, and accelerate the development of new therapies. Dr. Yeung's research also investigates genetic and biological modifiers of disease severity in porphyria. Her group uses genomic data from patients with protoporphyria to understand why symptoms vary substantially between individuals, even among patients with similar biochemical or genetic diagnoses. Additional studies have evaluated quality of life, reproductive health, diagnosis, biomarkers, and disease burden across multiple types of porphyria. At the MGH Cutaneous Biology Research Center, Dr. Yeung's laboratory studies the mechanisms of light-induced skin injury in protoporphyria. Her lab uses patient-derived biospecimens, cellular models, and functional assays to define the cellular and molecular pathways that drive phototoxicity. This mechanistic work is focused on understanding tissue-level responses to protoporphyrin accumulation and light exposure, identifying pathways that modify skin injury, and developing biologically grounded therapeutic targets.
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Across the nation, people are gearing up for summer and looking forward to enjoying beaches, swimming, boating and golf in the warm sunshine. But what if you could never go outside and enjoy the sun?

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