Jian Yang is a Chinese statistical geneticist and Professor of Statistical Genomics at the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

's Institute for Molecular Bioscience, as well as an affiliated professor at the

Queensland Brain Institute The Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) is an Australian neuroscience research institute, located in Brisbane at the St Lucia campus of The University of Queensland (UQ). Founding director Professor Perry Bartlett established the QBI in 2003 with ...

. He received the 2015 Ruth Stephens Gani Medal for his research on the "

missing heritability The "missing heritability" problem is the fact that single genetic variations cannot account for much of the heritability of diseases, behaviors, and other phenotypes. This is a problem that has significant implications for medicine, since a person ...

" of

complex trait Complex traits, also known as quantitative traits, are traits that do not behave according to simple Mendelian inheritance laws. More specifically, their inheritance cannot be explained by the genetic segregation of a single gene. Such traits show ...

s. In 2017, he received the Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year from the

Prime Minister of Australia The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the Australian Government, federal government of Australia and is also accountable to Parliament of A ...

for his work on the basis of genetic variation in complex human traits, such as

obesity Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's we ...

and

schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...

. He has researched the contribution of numerous

single nucleotide polymorphism In genetics, a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP ; plural SNPs ) is a germline substitution of a single nucleotide at a specific position in the genome. Although certain definitions require the substitution to be present in a sufficiently larg ...

s to variation in quantitative traits, such as

human height Human height or stature is the distance from the bottom of the feet to the top of the head in a human body, standing erect. It is measured using a stadiometer, in centimetres when using the metric system or SI system, or feet and inches when ...

, as well as the role of

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...

in driving genetic variation in such traits. He and his colleagues have also used genetic data on common diseases to study potential environmental risk factors for them.

References

External links

Faculty page
* 1981 births Living people Chinese geneticists Chinese statisticians Statistical geneticists Chinese expatriates in Australia Academic staff of the University of Queensland Zhejiang University alumni Scientists from Wenzhou 21st-century Chinese scientists {{China-academic-bio-stub