Yang Dan (; born October 1965) is a Hong Kong-Chinese chemist and chemical biologist. She is the chair professor in both School of Life Sciences and School of Science in the Westlake University. She was awarded the

TWAS Prize This is a list of recipients of the TWAS Prize, awarded annually by The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) since 1985. Summary Agricultural Sciences Biology Chemistry Earth Sciences Engineering Sciences Mathematics ...

for Chemistry in 2010 and the Young Woman Scientist Prize of China in 2011.

Education

Yang graduated with a BS degree from

Fudan University Fudan University (FDU) is a public university, national public university in Yangpu, Shanghai, Yangpu, Shanghai, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education and is co-funded with the Shanghai Municipal ...

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, China, and earned her MA degree from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

and her PhD in 1991 from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in the United States. After 2-year postdoc training with

Stuart Schreiber Stuart Schreiber (born February 6, 1956) is an American chemist who is the Morris Loeb Research Professor at Harvard University, a co-founder of the Broad Institute, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, Emeritus, and a member of the Nat ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, Yang started her independent career on Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology at the

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...

Career

Yang joined the Department of Chemistry at the

(HKU) in 1993, and is now the Chair Professor of Chemistry and the Morningside Professor in Chemical Biology. Yang's research interests include aminoxy acids and foldamores,

triptolide Triptolide is a diterpenoid epoxide which is produced by the thunder god vine, '' Tripterygium wilfordii''. It has ''in vitro'' and ''in vivo'' activities against mouse models of polycystic kidney disease and pancreatic cancer, but its phys ...

, and oxidation chemistry. She spent 17 years researching and synthesizing potential anti-cancer compounds from the plant ''

Tripterygium wilfordii ''Tripterygium wilfordii'', or ''léi gōng téng'' (Mandarin) (, Japanese: ''raikōtō''), sometimes called thunder god vine but more properly translated thunder duke vine, is a vine used in traditional Chinese medicine. ''Tripterygium wilfordi ...

'', for which she was awarded the Young Woman Scientist Prize of China in 2011, the first Hong Kong scientist to win the prize. In 2010, she was awarded the

in Chemistry for "her significant contributions to the development of novel methods for the synthesis of bioactive natural products and probes for biomedical research." In 2017, Yang was awarded the Chemical Biology Approach to Molecular Medicine in Areas of Excellence Scheme by University Grants Committee. In 2020, Yang was awarded the 5th Yoshida Prize by the International Organic Chemistry Foundation (IOCF). In August 2021, Yang joined Westlake University as a chair professor in both School of Life Sciences and School of Science.

Research interests

*Developing fluorescent/chemiluminescent sensors for molecular detection and imaging of reactive oxygen species, lipids, metabolites and enzymes in living cells to study redox biology and human diseases. *Developing new molecular probes for proteins and nucleic acids to investigate epigenetic changes in relation to their functions. *Developing synthetic ion transporters and exploring their biological applications in eradicating cancer stem cells and drug-resistant bacteria.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yang, Dan Living people Hong Kong scientists Chinese women chemists Chinese women biologists Fudan University alumni Columbia University alumni Princeton University alumni TWAS laureates Academic staff of the University of Hong Kong 1965 births Harvard University alumni