Yaohua Yang, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Medicine and a resident faculty at the Center for Public Health Genomics (CPHG). He currently serves as Scientific Leader of Microbiome and Cancer Epidemiology Research Program (Macer) at the UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center. Prior to joining UVA in November 2022, he was a Research Instructor at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center from 2020 to 2022.
Dr. Yang’s research primarily focuses on the human microbiome and the genetic/molecular epidemiology of cancer. His past and current research have discovered novel microbial features, genetic variants, polygenic risk scores, epigenetic biomarkers, genes, protein biomarkers, and metabolites that are associated with cancer risk, through integrative analyses of metagenome, genome, DNA methylome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome data. His research goal is to apply a multidisciplinary approach to investigate microbiome-host interactions, genetics, epigenetics, and gene-environment interaction in cancer etiology, with an overarching goal of translating gained knowledge to early detection, risk assessment, primary prevention, and prognosis of human malignancies.
Dr. Yang is supported by the NCI R00 award and the UVA development funds. Since joining UVA, he has been extending his research interests. He has multiple projects to identify biomarkers that related to N6-methyladenosine (m6A) and chromatin accessibility for cancers and other complex diseases. Has also established collaborations with clinicians to investigate the multi-omics of lower airway microbiome in prognosis and responses to immunotherapy of lung cancer patients. Dr. Yang is actively seeking highly motivated students, postdocs, and visiting scholars to join the team.
Assistant Professor of Public Health Sciences
Scientific Leader of Microbiome and Cancer Epidemiology Research (MACER) Program
Ph.D., Computational Genomics & Bioinformatics, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, 2016
Postdoc, Cancer Epidemiology, Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 2016–2020
Research Instructor, Medicine, Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 2020–2022
Tel: 615 300 7696
Email: vta8we@virginia.edu
Address: 560 Ray C. Hunt Dr, UVA Ivy Translational Research Building, Room 4408, Charlottesville, VA 22903
Expertise:
Genetics, Epidemiology, Multi-omics, Microbiome, Bioinformatics, Statistical modeling
Research Interests:
Genetic and molecular epidemiology of cancer
Host-microbiome interactions in cancer development, prognosis, and therapeutic responses
Interplay between microbiome and metabolome in disease etiology
Selected Publications (#co-first authors):