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). Summary Agricultural Sciences Biology Chemistry Earth Sciences Engineering Sciences Mathematics Medical Sc ...

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 () is a national public research university in Shanghai, China. Fudan is a member of the C9 League, Project 985, Project 211, and the Double First Class University identified by the Ministry of Education of China. It is als ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, China, and earned her MA degree from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and her PhD in 1991 from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

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

Stuart Schreiber Stuart L. Schreiber (born 6 February 1956) is a scientist at Harvard University and co-Founder of the Broad Institute. He has been active in chemical biology, especially the use of small molecules as probes of biology and medicine. Small molecul ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

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

University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest tertiary institution in Hong Kong. HKU was also the fi ...

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 physical p ...

, 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