Kevin Yackle received his M.D. and Ph.D. in 2016 from Stanford University, where he focused on using molecular biology and genetic tools to begin characterizing the role of neuromodulators and molecularly defined breathing pacemaker cell types in the control of breathing. From 2016 to 2022, he was a Sandler Faculty Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where his lab identified a brainstem node that patterns vocalizations and a cellular/molecular basis for how opioids depress breathing. Yackle is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Physiology at UCSF.

Breathing is a seemingly simple, vital behavior that occurs at rest about 12 times each minute. Surprisingly, this fundamental rhythm originates from a cluster of just several thousand brainstem neurons. The Kevin Yackle lab seeks to identify the key neuron(s) within that pace breathing and to determine how these cells are innately and volitionally “turned on” or “off” to speed up or stop breathing. It also aims to determine how these neurons contribute to the slowing of breathing due to opioids, the cause of a public health epidemic since the 1990s. Beyond basic breathing, our breath is coordinated with many other behaviors, like speaking, swallowing, and chewing, and the Yackle lab seeks to understand how the neural systems that create these behaviors are coordinated with breathing and how this coordination might be altered in autism spectrum disorders.