Physician Publications
Dr. Yang is a molecular biologist and clinical microbiologist. He has extensive experience in molecular diagnostics and clinical virology. He is also a pioneer in the clinical applications of Next-generation Sequencing (NGS) in infectious diseases. Dr. Yang developed and implemented numerous cutting-edge molecular microbiological tests, including a 16S metagenomic sequencing test for the detection of bacterial pathogens in body fluid and tissue, and ITS metagenomic sequencing test for fungal pathogen identification in FFPE tissues, and a whole-genome sequencing test for Mycobacterium abscessus drug resistance prediction.
Dr. Yang graduated from the University of Southern California with a Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry in 2006. He received Clinical Microbiology Fellowship training at UCLA (2014-2016) and became board certified by the American Board of Medical Microbiology (ABMM) in 2016. He joined the University of New Mexico in 2016 as an Assistant Professor of Pathology, where he served as the Associate Medical Director of Infectious Diseases and the Director of Molecular Microbiology at the Tricore Reference Laboratory. He returned to UCLA in 2018 as an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and served as the Assistant Medical Director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory.
Dr. Yang's main expertise and research interests include molecular diagnostics and innovation, clinical virology, clinical applications of NGS, transplant-related infectious diseases testing, bacterial genomics, genomic epidemiology, and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) mechanisms and genotypic prediction. Dr. Yang also works closely with international collaborators in the investigation and monitoring of global emerging infectious diseases and novel AMR mechanisms.
Dr. Yang enjoys integrating clinical service, teaching, and research. He believes that sharing ideas and knowledge, plus teamwork is the best formula for success. His motto: "Always do your best and cherish what you have."
Link to Dr. Yang's PubMed publications >
