Staff Profile

Dr. Yang graduated from The John Curtin School of Medical Research, Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University, with distinction: he was awarded the prestigious Frank Fenner Medal for the  most  outstanding  PhD  dissertation.  Subsequently he was awarded  a prestigious University of Newcastle Research Fellowship and was promoted to level B within the first year after graduation.  Based on his research directions and productivity, he was awarded an NHMRC New Investigator grant. In 2012, he was promoted to Senior Research Fellow. He is now internationally known for his investigations into the pathogenesis of asthma, and the molecular and cellular regulation of inflammation.

Dr. Yang’s group has received international recognition through publication in leading biomedical science journals and has contributed to more than 30 refereed manuscripts in high impact journals (J Exp Med, J Clin Invest, Gastroenterology, J Allergy Clin Immunology, PNAS, J Immunology) with more than 1500 combined citations. He has been successful in obtaining research grants both indendently and in collaboration with other investigators (over $3.8 Million). 

Research Directions and Significant Achievements: In recent years Dr. Yang has initiated investigations into the mechanisms that regulate steroid resistant inflammatory pathways in the lung, to help understand how steroid resistance may develop in asthma. Understanding the mechanisms that regulate steroid-resistant inflammation is important and developing novel non- steroidal therapeutic approaches to the disease will be highly beneficial, as these patients suffer greater morbidity and mortality. Currently, there is no effective treatment and there is very limited functional evidence of the way in which the inflammatory pathways are activated in these patients. Building on clinical studies, we have recently demonstrated, for the first time, that macrophages are crucial in regulating steroid-resistant inflammatory signals. Two papers have been published in the Journal of Immunology and their significance has been recognised by the American Academy of Asthma Allergy and Immunology (symposium invitation, 2010) and the invitation to write two reviews for Current Drug Targets and Journal of Leukocyte Biology.

The unique complexity of respiratory system has limited the development of therapeutic agents that show clinical benefit for severe asthmatic patients. However, the more efficient therapeutics may be developed by silencing the dominant proinflammatory genes, which are responsible for the propagation of the disease. Employing small ‘non-coding’ RNA molecules called microRNAs (miRNA), small interfering RNAs (siRNA) or synthetic analogues of these molecules, ‘antagomirs’, to specifically silence aberrant gene function is of growing interest. Dr. Yang was at the forefront of the first application of RNA interference to modulate AHR and macrophage function in the lung (2006, J Immunology). His works in this field has been recognised by invitations to write reviews for Drug Discovery Today, Pharmacology & Therapeutics and American Journal of Respiratory Cellular and Molecular Biology. Recently, he has been investigating the central roles of miRNA in the regulation of the pro-inflammatory effects of macrophages and thus potential innate immune mediated AHR. Dr. Yang also has extensive research interests in characterizing the pivotal roles of these small non-coding RNAs in modulating the differentiation and function of granulocytes and other immune cells.