Research
Mouse molecular genetics are used to study the pathogenesis and develop treatment for neurodegenerative diseases
Appointments
- Professor, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
Biography
Yang is interested in using the mouse genetic approach to study the pathogenesis and to identify potential therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative diseases, particularly for Huntington’s Disease (HD) and Parkinson’s Disease (PD).
Yang and his colleagues focus on the following projects:
- in order to understand how mutant Huntington acts to result in a wide variety of clinical symptoms ranging from psychiatric, cognitive to motor deficits, they generate and analyze brain regional-specific models of HD in mice
- they take advantage of the high-speed BAC transgenic system to systematically test candidate dominant genetic modifiers of HD in mice.
- they use BAC transgenesis to introduce known PD mutations into mice to develop mouse models for Parkinson’s Disease
Publications
- Yang, XW, Jiang, XL, Wu, YL. Clinical investigation of postpartum depression risk factors and screening predictors. World J Psychiatry. 2026;16 (2):113101. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i2.113101. PubMed PMID:41641198 PubMed Central PMC12865465.
- Zhao, XW, Zou, ZB, Lin, YY, Ma, KX, Xie, CL, Li, LS et al.. Ferroptosis-inhibitory compounds from the deep-sea-derived Penicillium sp. Bioorg Chem. 2026;171 :109574. doi: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2026.109574. PubMed PMID:41619440 .
- Duan, WT, Yuan, JF, Wang, LJ, Sun, MX, Yang, XW, Qiu, ZJ et al.. Microwave-assisted extraction enhances the epicatechin and bovine serum albumin the interaction by inducing protein conformational changes. Food Chem. 2026;505 :148055. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2026.148055. PubMed PMID:41579535 .
- Goel, P, Yang, P, Duvick, L, Rainwater, O, Serres, S, O'Callaghan, B et al.. Striatal pathology in Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 1 mice: A comparative study with Huntington's disease. bioRxiv. 2025; :. doi: 10.64898/2025.12.11.693749. PubMed PMID:41415451 PubMed Central PMC12709482.
- Gu, FZ, Mi, LY, Liu, B, Yang, XW, Zhuo, YQ, Gu, HJ et al.. Screening of Metabolism-Related Biomarkers and Construction of Prognostic Models in Patients with Neuroblastoma. Clin Lab. 2025;71 (12):. doi: 10.7754/Clin.Lab.2025.250323. PubMed PMID:41362189 .