{"id":112081,"date":"2020-02-28T14:07:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T00:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=112081"},"modified":"2020-03-05T14:55:26","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T00:55:26","slug":"jabsom-quadriplegic-scientist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/02\/28\/jabsom-quadriplegic-scientist\/","title":{"rendered":"Quadriplegic scientist flourishes at <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> med school with helping hands"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap-post\"><figure class=\"wp-block-embed wp-block-embed-youtube is-type-video is-provider-youtube epyt-figure\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe  id=\"_ytid_80912\"  width=\"620\" height=\"349\"  data-origwidth=\"620\" data-origheight=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dvaJXoUEgtc?enablejsapi=1&origin=https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu&rel=0&autoplay=0&cc_load_policy=0&cc_lang_pref=&iv_load_policy=1&loop=0&fs=1&playsinline=0&autohide=2&theme=dark&color=red&controls=1&disablekb=0&\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  no-lazyload\" title=\"Assisting \u201chands\u201d allow quadriplegic scientist to flourish at 糖心Vlog官方 medical school\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n<p>No institution has perfected how to accommodate people with disabilities, but the triumph of one researcher at the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at M\u0101noa <a href=\"http:\/\/jabsom.hawaii.edu\">John A. Burns School of Medicine<\/a> (<abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr>) is a model of what is possible when institutions, faculty and a very special student unite. <strong>Jonathan Yap<\/strong> is making advances in science diversity as both a Native Hawaiian and quadriplegic scientist at the <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> medical school.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_112100\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-112100\" style=\"width: 214px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manoa-jabsom-jonathan-yap-214x300.jpg\" alt=\"Jonathan Yap\" width=\"214\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-112100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manoa-jabsom-jonathan-yap-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manoa-jabsom-jonathan-yap-93x130.jpg 93w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/manoa-jabsom-jonathan-yap.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-112100\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jonathan Yap<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As a young child growing up in Wahiaw\u0101, Yap had always been intrigued by his science classes. However, a bodysurfing accident at Sandy Beach Park seemed to end his research career prospects. As a high school student, Yap lost the use of his limbs and manual dexterity.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;After getting hurt, in many ways I felt lost&#8212;it was confusing and frustrating trying to define how I would be able to have a journey that leads me to where I ultimately would like to be,&rdquo; said Yap.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, he soldiered on and continued to follow his passion for science to <abbr>糖心Vlog官方<\/abbr> M\u0101noa where he earned not one but three degrees&#8212;a bachelor\u2019s in biology, a master\u2019s in physiology and most recently in May 2019, a <abbr title=\"Doctor of Philosophy\">PhD<\/abbr> in cell and molecular biology.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I\u2019d always known that <abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr> is a quality institution,&rdquo; Yap said. &ldquo;I found the faculty to be consistently encouraging and eager to assist in the pursuit of my career goals.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Nationally, there are few disabled individuals who have earned a doctorate in the biomedical sciences. As a graduate student, Yap won national-level funding for his career development and pursuit of his science, challenging institutes at the National Institutes of Health to accommodate funding for technical assistance to be his &ldquo;hands&rdquo; in the lab. Much of the additional federal support was matched by the <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> State Government, and none of it would have been possible without <abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr> faculty advocating for these accommodations on his behalf.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Because of my complete reliance on my technicians to perform the manual requirements of experiments, I\u2019ve developed a special bond with each of them that I value to this day,&rdquo; Yap said about technicians <strong>Monica Montgomery<\/strong>, <strong>Whitney Regan<\/strong>, <strong>Jan Garo<\/strong>, <strong>Jason Irei<\/strong> and <strong>Max Bishop<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>As he continues his research at <abbr>JABSOM<\/abbr>, Yap hopes to leave a mark in the scientific world and to inspire others like him.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I really hope to contribute in the sense of diversity as I recognize that there aren\u2019t very many disabled individuals that are represented in this field,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I understand that it\u2019s largely a function of the field, itself, being inherently hands-on that presents a number of challenges and I think the process of understanding and navigating those challenges has been quite a formative experience in my own life.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Deborah Manog Dimaya<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jonathan Yap is a quadriplegic scientist at the John A. Burns School of Medicine who hopes to leave a mark in the scientific world and to inspire others like him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[90,679,31,9,56],"class_list":["post-112081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-alumni","tag-alumni-recognition","tag-john-a-burns-school-of-medicine","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112081"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112504,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112081\/revisions\/112504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}