About Dr. Yang

Dr. Yang completed his Ph.D. in cancer biology at Stanford University with Dr. Monte Winslow and Dr. Julien Sage. He was awarded the Denise Chan Outstanding Thesis Award for identifying the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of how small cell lung cancer adopting neuronal migration machineries to metastasize. He then did his postdoc with Dr. Jonathan Weissman at MIT and developed a CRISPR-based evolving lineage tracing mouse model. This new mouse model enabled him to continuously track how a tumor evolves from a single transformed cell into an aggressive tumor and spreads systemically at an unprecedented resolution. His work to date has integrated CRISPR technologies, single-cell genomics, in vivo cancer modeling and computational analysis, providing a new paradigm to study tumor evolution. Dr. Yang recently won a Damon Runyon Jake Wetchler Award and a Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists.

Selected Awards

2021  Damon Runyon Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists

2020  Jake Wetchler Award for Pediatric Innovation

2018  Damon Runyon Cancer Research Postdoctoral Fellowship Award

2018  Denise A. Chan Outstanding Thesis Award, Stanford University

2016  Best Speakers Prize, the 39th Stanford Cancer Biology Retreat

2015  Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program Dissertation Award

2011   Stanford Graduate Fellowship (Lucille P. Markey Biomedical Research Fellow)

2011   Magna Cum Laude, Cornell University

2011   High Honor Distinction in Research, Cornell University

2010   Howard Hughes Scholars Fellowship at Cornell University

2010   New York State Stem Cell Research Fellowship