Biography
Dr Yang received his PhD degree from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences with Dr Sheng-Li Yang (2000). He performed his postdoctoral research in the International Agency for Research on Cancer-IARC in Lyon with Dr Zhao-Qi Wang (2000-2003) and the Clare Hall Laboratories in London with Dr Tomas Lindahl (2005-2008). He had served as a staff scientist at IARC from 2003-2005. He joined in the Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences as a Principle Investigator in 2008. He was elected as a Member of Academia Europaea (MAE) in 2020 in recognition of his contributions to the discovery of reversible RNA methylation. He was appointed as a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) by WHO in 2021.
He serves as Director of the Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences since 2023 and Director of the China National Center for Bioinformation (CNCB) in 2024.
Research interest - RNA modification
His research interest is to dissect the roles and biological significance of RNA modification. He has contributed in the discovery of reversible RNA methylation and its important biological function. He has published over 76 papers as corresponding author in international peer-reviewed scientific journals such as Nature, Nature Cell Biology, Cell Research, Cell Stem Cell, etc. The series of his scientific achievements has been featured in the " Frontiers of Fundamental Research in China "collection with the book of “Epitranscriptomics of RNA Methylation”.