For six months, Dr. Jonathan Yap didn't receive a paycheck. His federal research funding had been disrupted and his path toward becoming an independent researcher was suddenly uncertain. Still, Yap kept showing up at JABSOM and doing whatever work he could.
"I kinda just hung in there," Yap said.
That perseverance has paid off as Yap recently received the R00 phase of a prestigious National Institutes of Health K99/R00 award, providing three years of research support as he establishes his own laboratory at JABSOM and continues his work examining ways to help the heart recover after a heart attack.
The award represents a major step toward research independence for Yap. Getting there required navigating circumstances he never anticipated.
"It was a battle really. It was a hard-fought battle," Yap said. "We just didn't stop, and I think that's what got us here today."
The NIH K99/R00 program is designed to help promising researchers transition from mentored training into independent research careers.
Yap received the K99 portion while working under the mentorship of JABSOM Professor Dr. William Boisvert. During that phase, Yap studied a protein called tristetraprolin, or TTP, and its potential to reduce damaging inflammation following a heart attack. His work uses specially developed mouse models to better understand how TTP affects inflammation and cell death in the heart. The R00 allows Yap to build on those findings while taking the major career step of running a laboratory of his own.
"Having my own lab is really multifaceted in the sense that it's going to allow me personally to develop my career as an early investigator and moving into larger grants," Yap said. “It will also allow me to become a mentor.”
Yap hopes to eventually train undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, offering the kind of guidance he credits with helping him reach this point, but securing the R00 was never a certainty. The K99 was awarded through the NIH's MOSAIC program, which was created to expand opportunities for researchers from diverse backgrounds to move into independent faculty positions.
Federal policy changes in 2025 disrupted that pathway and left Yap unable to move forward with his R00 application when his K99 phase ended in May. That funding pathway had become uncertain as universities across the country were confronting their own challenges surrounding federal research support.
Yap essentially found himself without a job.
"For about six months I was unemployed," he said. "I kinda just hung in there and kinda just kept going with what minimal things I could do in the lab at the time. If I had chosen to turn away at any point in that six months, I definitely wouldn't be here.”
Behind the scenes, JABSOM leaders continued searching for a way forward. UH Manoa was also behind Yap. At one point, the NIH needed to see evidence of financial backing and Robert Wright, the new Interim Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship came through with a guarantee of funding if the grant was not awarded. This strong commitment was a key factor in the NIH deciding that JABSOM fully backed Yap’s career.
“Jonathan had worked incredibly hard to reach this point in his career, and we weren’t going to give up on him when circumstances beyond his control threatened everything he had built. Our leadership team kept looking for a path forward because we believed in Jonathan, we believed in his research, and we knew what it would mean to lose a talented young investigator like him,” JABSOM Dean Sam Shomaker said. “Seeing him receive his R00 and begin building his own lab makes all of that work worth it.”
Yap remembers speaking with Dr. Boisvert every week or two as they explored possibilities to keep his research career alive.
"There were times where it looked like there was nothing we could do," Yap said.
In the midst of the crisis, JABSOM leadership asked the state legislature for the ability to hire four faculty positions, including one Yap could apply for. He was hired as a JABSOM faculty member in February and was able to submit his R00 materials for review.
The application was successful.
"Here we are today," Yap said.
Perseverance has long been part of Yap's story. A body-surfing accident left him paralyzed years before he entered research. He eventually arrived at JABSOM as a volunteer and worked his way toward becoming a postdoctoral researcher, earning the K99 and now joining the faculty. This latest challenge taught him another lesson he hopes to pass along as he begins mentoring researchers of his own.
"I think sometimes even I forget that I started off as a volunteer," Yap said. "To get any kind of traction and momentum with anything we're trying to achieve in life, I think it takes commitment and it takes devotion."
Now, Yap is preparing his new laboratory space in JABSOM's Biomedical Sciences Building.
He plans to start with a small research team and continue investigating TTP, including other mechanisms of cell death the protein may influence following a heart attack. Data generated through the R00 could eventually position him to compete for an NIH R01, one of the primary research grants used to support independent investigators. Yap also sees his laboratory as an opportunity to help the next generation of scientists navigate challenges of their own.
"There will always be adversity," Yap said. "I feel like that's one constant, and that one constant that accompanies achievement is adversity. Any achievement that I've reached in my life has never been done alone. It’s always been facilitated and required the assistance and really selflessness of others. And for that, I'm eternally grateful."
