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Ying Yang

Ying Yang

Assistant Researcher, Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, School of Biological Sciences

Biography

Ying Yang, Ph.D., is an Assistant Researcher in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, School of Biological Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. Yang received a Ph.D. from the School of Medicine at Zhejiang University in China in 2014. Yang's research focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying cancer resistance, metastasis, and recurrence, with particular emphasis on metabolic adaptations in cancer cells and the development of nutrient-based therapeutic interventions.

Yang has made contributions to understanding how metabolic and signaling pathways drive cancer adaptation. Yang demonstrated that Akt and Oct4 reciprocally regulate stemness and resistance in cancer stem cells, identifying Akt-phosphorylated Oct4 as a marker of aggressive biology. Yang defined microRNA-mediated adaptations to glutamine stress, highlighting miR-135's role in suppressing glycolysis to support survival. Yang discovered that PP6 regulatory subunit SAPS3 acts as an endogenous inhibitor of AMPK to control metabolic homeostasis and lifespan, work published in Nature Communications and Science Advances.

Yang has held research positions at the University of California, Irvine since 2018, first as a Postdoctoral Fellow and subsequently as an Assistant Project Scientist before assuming the current role. Yang previously completed postdoctoral training at City of Hope National Medical Center. Yang serves as a Guest Editor for Metabolites and as a reviewer for multiple journals, including Nature Cancer, Cancer and Metastasis Reviews, Cancer Letters, and Oncogenes.

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Education

  • Ph.D. in Medicine, Zhejiang University, China, 2014
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Distinctions

  • ICTS Pliot Award, 2026
  • National Scholarship for Graduate Students, 2012
  • Second award for poster presentation in Department retreat, 2022
  • Ge Kequan Scholarship, 2013
  • Excellent Graduate of Zhejiang Province, 2014
  • Excellent Graduate of Zhejiang University, 2014
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Areas of Expertise

  • Cancer Metabolism
  • Tumor Organoid Drug Screening
  • Protein Phosphatase Signaling
  • Stress Adaptation
  • MicroRNA Epigenetic Regulation
  • AMPK Metabolic Homeostasis
  • Dietary Intervention Immunotherapy

Recent Publications

  • Campos M., Nguyen S.T., Kong X., Yang Y., Watson R.L., Gromova A., Livelo C.R., Franco C.N., Cabral J.E., Seabrook L.J., Dai S., Liu Y., Zhou M., Hanse E.A., Sumigray K., La Spada A.R., Seldin M.M., Plikus M.V., Nicholas D.A., McNulty R., et al., “PFKM governs metabolic shifts throughout skeletal muscle differentiation” (opens in new tab), Nature Metabolism, vol. 8, pp. 489-505, 2026.
  • Yan J.K., Yang Y., Wang W., “Bioinformatic analysis of metastasis-associated metabolic landscape reveals an oncogenic role for the transsulfuration pathway” (opens in new tab), Bioinformatics Advances, vol. 6, 2026.
  • Ying Yang, Da Eun Kang, Qi Fan, Eric Hanse, Hosung Bae, Rocio Barahona, Bryan Ruiz, Shelly Lee, Katherine Pasterczyk, Roberto Tinoco, Kim Green, Choolson Jang, Mei Kong, “The protein phosphatase 6 subunit SAPS3 modulates lifespan via regulating metabolism” (opens in new tab), Science Advances, vol. 11, no. 43, pp. eadt3879, 2025.
  • Ikrame Naciri, Maria D. Andrade-Ludena, Ying Yang, Mei Kong, Sha Sun, “An Emerging Link Between LncRNAs and Cancer Sex Dimorphism” (opens in new tab), Human Genetics, vol. 143, no. 7, pp. 831-842, 2024.
  • Ikrame Naciri, Minzhi Liang, Ying Yang, Heather Karner, Benjamin Lin, Maria De Lourdes Andrade Ludena, Eric A Hanse, Alfredo Lebron, Olga V Razorenova, Dequina Nicholas, Mei Kong, Sha Sun, “Loss of XIST lncRNA unlocks stemness and cellular plasticity in ovarian cancer” (opens in new tab), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 121, no. 47, pp. e2418096121, 2024.
  • Carolina Franco, Laurence Seabrook, Steven Nguyen, Ying Yang, Qi Fan, Andrew Cicchetto, Mei Kong, Heather Christofk, Lauren Albrecht, “Vitamin B6 is governed by the local compartmentalization of metabolic enzymes during growth” (opens in new tab), Science Advances, vol. 36, no. 9, 2023.
  • Bryan Ruiz, Xazmin Lowman, Ying Yang, Qi Fan, Tianhong Wang, Hongmei Wu, Eric Hanse, Mei Kong, “Alpha-Ketoglutarate Regulates Tnfrsf12a/Fn14 Expression via Histone Modification and Prevents Cancer-Induced Cachexia” (opens in new tab), Genes, vol. 14, no. 9, pp. 1818, 2023.
  • Ying Yang, Michael Reid, Eric Hanse, Bryan Ruiz, Haiqing Li, Mei Kong, “SAPS3 is an AMPK inhibitor and controls metabolic homeostasis upon dietary challenge or aging” (opens in new tab), Nature Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 1368, 2023.
  • Eric Hanse, Min Pan, Wenzhu Liu, Ying Yang, Mari Ishak Gabra, Thai Tran, Xazmin Lowman, Bryan Ruiz, Qiong Wang, Mei Kong, “The B56α subunit of PP2A is necessary for mesenchymal stem cell commitment to adipocyte” (opens in new tab), EMBO reports, vol. 22, pp. e51910, 2021.
  • Chao Gao, Ying Yang, Yan Zhang, Mengyuan Qian, Jun Yang, “HGF gene delivering alginate/galactosylated chitosan sponge scaffold for three-dimensional coculture of hepatocytes/3T3 cells”, DNA and Cell Biology, vol. 39, no. 3, 2020.
  • Ying Yang, “Glutamine diet supplementation prevent obesity through inhibiting inflammation”, Journal of Life Sciences, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 9-21, 2020.
  • Chunjing Bian, Chao Zhang, Aditi Vyas, Shih-Hsun Chen, Chao Liu, Ying Yang, Mei Kong, Tao Luo, Xiaochun Yu, “NADP+ is an endogenous PARP inhibitor in DNA damage response and tumor suppression”, Nature Communications, vol. 10, pp. 693, 2019.
  • Ying Yang, Mari B. Ishak Gabra, Mei Kong, “Metabolic adaptations to glutamine deprivation in pancreatic cancer”, Journal of Life Sciences, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 26-32, 2019.
  • Thai Tran, Xazmin Lowman, Michael Reid, Carlos Mendez-Dorantes, Min Pan, Ying Yang, Mei Kong, “Tumor-associated mutant p53 promotes cancer cell survival upon glutamine deprivation through p21 induction”, Oncogene, vol. 36, pp. 1991-2001, 2017.
  • Wenxin Li, Yanwen Zhou, Xiaoqian Zhang, Ying Yang, Songsong Dan, Tong Su, Shiqi She, Weilai Dong, Qingwei Zhao, Jia Jia, Hangping Yao, Min Zheng, Bo Kang, Yingjie Wang, “Dual inhibiting OCT4 and AKT potently suppresses the propagation of human cancer cells”, Scientific Reports, vol. 7, pp. 46246, 2017.
  • Thai Tran, Mari Ishak Gabra, Xazmin Lowman, Ying Yang, Michael Reid, Min Pan, Timothy O'Connor, Mei Kong, “Glutamine deficiency induces DNA alkylation damage and sensitizes cancer cells to alkylating agents through inhibition of ALKBH enzymes”, Plos Biology, vol. 15, no. 11, pp. e2002810, 2017.
  • Michael Reid, Xazmin Lowman, Min Pan, Tran Tran, Marc Warmoes, Mari Ishak Gabra, Ying Yang, Jason Locasale, Mei Kong, “IKKβ promotes metabolic adaptation to glutamine deprivation via phosphorylation and inhibition of PFKFB3”, Gene and Development, vol. 30, no. 16, pp. 1837-51, 2016.
  • Min Pan, Michael Reid, Xazmin Lowman, Rajan Kulkarni, Tran Tran, Xiaojing Liu, Ying Yang, Jenny Hernandez-Davies, Kimberly Rosales, Haiqing Li, Willy Hugo, Chunying Song, Xiangdoing Xu, Dustin Schones, David Ann, Viviana Gradinaru, Roger S Lo, Jason Locasale, Mei Kong, “Regional glutamine deficiency in tumours promotes dedifferentiation through inhibition of histone demethylation”, Nature Cell Biology, vol. 18, no. 10, pp. 1090-1101, 2016.
  • Qingwei Zhao, Yanwen Zhou, Wenxin Li, Bo Kang, Xiaoqian Zhang, Ying Yang, Jie Cheng, Sheng Yong Yin, Ying Tong, Jianqin He, Hangping Yao, Min Zheng, Yingjie Wang, “Akt-mediated phosphorylation of Oct4 is associated with the proliferation of stem-like cancer cells”, Oncology Reports, vol. 33, no. 4, pp. 1621-1629, 2015.
  • Ning Zhou, Jianzhou Li, Yimin Zhang, Juan Lu, Ermei Chen, Weibo Du, Jie Wang, Xiaoping Pan, Danhua Zhu, Ying Yang, Yu Chen, Hongcui Cao, Lanjuan Li, “Efficacy of coupled low-volume plasma exchange with plasma filtration adsorption in treating pigs with acute liver failure: A randomised study”, Journal of Hepatology, vol. 63, no. 2, pp. 378-87, 2015.
  • Jie Cheng, Wenxin Li, Bo Kang, Jiasheng Song, Yanwen Zhou, Songsong Dan, Ying Yang, Xiaoqian Zhang, Jingchao Li, Shengyong Yin, Hongcui Cao, Hangping Yao, Chenggang Zhum, Wen Yi, Qingwei Zhao, Min Zheng, Shusen Zheng, Lanjuan Li, Binghui Shen, Yingjie Wang, “Tryptophan derivatives regulate the transcription of Oct4 in stem-like cancer cells”, Nature Communications, vol. 6, pp. 7209, 2015.
  • Jenny Davies, Thai Tran, Kimberly Rosales, Michael Reid, Xazmin Lowman, Min Pan, Ying Yang, Wu Jun, Roger S. Lo, Mei Kong, “Vemurafenib resistance reprograms melanoma cells towards glutamine dependence”, Journal of Translational Medicine, vol. 13, pp. 210, 2015.
  • Kimberly Rosales, Michael Reid, Ying Yang, Thai Tran, Wen-I Wang, Xazmin Lowman, Min Pan, Mei Kong, “TIPRL inhibits protein phosphatase 4 activity and promotes H2AX phosphorylation in the DNA damage response”, Plos One, vol. 10, no. 12, pp. e0145938, 2015.
  • Ying Yang, Jianzhou Li, Xiaoping Pan, Pengcheng Zhou, Xiaopeng Yu, Hongcui Cao, Yingjie Wang, Lanjian Li, “Co-culture with mesenchymal stem cells enhances metabolic functions of liver cells in bioartificial liver system”, Biotechnology and Bioengineering, vol. 110, no. 3, pp. 958-68, 2013.
  • Lifu Zhao, Jianzhou Li, Guoliang Lv, Anye Zhang, Pengcheng Zhou, Ying Yang, Xiaoping Pan, Xiaopeng Yu, Yimin Zhang, Shusen Zheng, Yu Chen, Yuemei Chen, Chengbo Yu, Weibo Du, Tao Song, Jiansheng Xu, Yang Yu, Lanjuan Li, “Evaluation of a reversibly immortalized human hepatocyte line in bioartificial liver in pigs”, African Journal of Biotechnology, vol. 11, no. 17, pp. 4116-4128, 2012.
  • Ying Yang, Jianzhou Li, Xiaoping Pan, Pengcheng Zhou, Xiaopeng Yu, Hongcui Cao, Yingjie Wang, Lanjuan Li, “The study on hepatocytes culture model based on microsphere suspension fluidized bed bioreactor”, 2012. Presented at Second National Severe chronic viral hepatitis of basic and clinical research progress in academic conferences, Chongqing, China, Jan 1, 2012.
  • Yuanji Lin, Ying Yang, Weihua Li, Qi Chen, Jie Li, Xiao Pan, Lina Zhou, Changwei Liu, Chunsong Chen, Jianqin He, Hongcui Cao, Hangping Yao, Li Zheng, Xiaowei Xu, Zongping Xia, Jiangtao Ren, Lei Xiao, Lanjuan Li, Binghui Shen, Honglin Zhou, et al., “Reciprocal regulation of Akt and Oct4 promotes the self-renewal and survival of embryonal carcinoma cells”, Molecular Cell, vol. 48, no. 4, pp. 627-40, 2012.
  • Lifu Zhao, Guoliang Lv, Yimin Zhang, Anye Zhang, Jianzhou Li, Pengcheng Zhou, Xiaoping Pan, Yuemei Chen, Xiaopeng Yu, Chengbo Yu, Wei Xu, Ying Yang, Lanjuan Li, “Development of a Novel Artificial Liver Support System”, 2011. Presented at 4TH International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Informatics (BMEI).
  • Guoguang Niu, Ying Yang, Hongbin Zhang, Jun Yang, Li Song, Zhou Yang, Hui Cao, Yudong Zheng, Siquan Zhu, Huai Yang, “Synthesis and Characterization of Acrylamide / N-vinylpyrrolidone Copolymer with Pendent Thiol Groups for Ophthalmic Applications”, Acta Biomaterialia, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 1056-63, 2009.
  • Ying Yang, Jun Yang, “Construction of the Plasmid Encoding the Fusion Protein of Hepatocyte Growth Factor and Red Fluorescent Protein”, Journal of Biomedical Engineering, vol. 26, no. 6, pp. 1286-90, 2009.
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Most Cited Publications

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Contact Information

Email: yingy33@uci.edu

Phone: (949) 824-6533

Address: 3119 McGaugh Hall

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This profile was created with the help of AI.

Last updated on 10/29/2026.