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