Dr. Yang received a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry and Chemistry from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. She completed a PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology at UBC in the lab of Prof. Jim Johnson, studying pancreatic beta cell death in diabetic settings and characterizing factors that can promote beta cell survival. Her studies led to the discovery of unexpected roles for axon guidance cues in the survival and function of pancreatic beta cells.

Subsequently, Dr. Yang joined the Max Planck Institute in Bad Nauheim, Germany, as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Prof. Didier Stainier. With fellowship support from the Human Frontier Science Program, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the European Molecular Biology Organization, she investigated the in vivo interplay between autonomic innervation and pancreatic endocrine cells, which has potential implications in diabetes progression. She took advantage of the zebrafish model to conduct in vivo imaging, targeted-cell ablation, optogenetic-mediated neuromodulation and genetic analyses to uncover insights into pancreatic nerve-endocrine interactions during development and physiological adaptations.

In 2020, Dr. Yang moved to the University of Exeter to continue her research on the interplay between the nervous system and the endocrine pancreas during development and maintenance of energy homeostasis. Her research interests are in molecular and cell biology of diabetes initiation and progression and she continues use zebrafish as a complementary model for interrogating the effects of neural perturbances on pancreas physiology. The zebrafish, with organs and signalling/metabolic pathways that are evolutionarily conserved and similar to mammals, is ideal for studying innervation during organ development and environmental adaptation. By combining its advantages of rapid embryogenesis and optical transparency with genetic tools, pancreatic-neuro-endocrine crosstalk can be studied dynamically.

Qualifications:

PhD Cell and Developmental Biology – University of British Columbia, Canada

BSc (Hons) Biochemistry and Chemistry – University of British Columbia, Canada