X. William Yang

Dr. X. William Yang completed his B.S./M.S. degrees in Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry at Yale University in 1991. He obtained M.D./Ph.D. training at Rockefeller University (Ph.D., 1998) and Weill Medical College of Cornell University (M.D., 200). He co-invented the technology to engineer Bacterial Artificial Chromosomes (BACs) and to generate BAC transgenic mice. His laboratory at UCLA (established in 2002) pioneered the use of a BAC transgenic approach in mice to study pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders including Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease. The Yang lab has also applied novel genetic and systems biology approaches to study molecular networks in healthy and disease brains, and to study brain-wide morphology of genetically-defined neurons. He is a recipient of BRAIN Initiative Awards from NIH, Brain Disorder Award from McKnight Foundation, the Leslie Gehry Brenner Prize for Innovation in Science in 2014, and is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.