Prof. Guan Yang joined the City University of Hong Kong in July 2021 as an Assistant Professor in Immunology in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Public Health.
Prof. Yang owned his Ph.D. in Animal Molecular & Cellular Biology from the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, specializing in swine immunology under the mentorship of Dr. John Driver. The major focus of his Ph.D. work was aimed at characterizing the phenotypic and functional properties of natural killer T cells in pigs and evaluating their contribution to viral immunity. He then received postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Luc Van Kaer at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, where he studied the role of autophagy in immune cell function particularly in the context of autoimmune diseases.
At the City University of Hong Kong, his research program focuses on using pre-clinical models including swine and mouse to study infectious diseases and autoimmune responses.
Prof. Yang specializes in the areas of swine immunology, infectious disease, and vaccinology. He is also an expert in mouse immunology focused on using mouse models to study autoimmune diseases. His program is divided into two main research areas. The first involves phenotypically and functionally characterizing porcine innate-like T lymphocytes during different microbial infections. Prof. Yang's other area of research is in the field of autoimmunity, focused on evaluating the role of environmental factors such as intestinal microbiota in the development of autoimmune responses.
For complete publication list please visit Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=XJSUU6oAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate
- Yang G, Postoak JL, Song WQ, Martinez J, Zhang JH, Wu L, Van Kaer L. Dendritic cell-specific PIK3C3/VPS34 controls the pathogenicity of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis independently of LC3-associated phagocytosis. Autophagy. 2021 doi: 10.1080/15548627.2021.1922051
- Gu WH, Madrid DM, Yang G, Artiaga BL, Loeb JC, Castleman W, Richt JA, John A. Lednicky J, Driver JP. Unaltered influenza disease outcomes in swine prophylactically treated with α-galactosylceramide. Dev. Comp. Immunol. 2021 Jan;114:103843. doi: 10.1016/j.dci.2020.103843
- Yang G, Song WQ, Xu JL, Postoak JL, Cheng FX, Martinez J, Zhang JH, Wu L, Van Kaer L. Pik3c3-deficiency in myeloid cells imparts partial resistance to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis associated with reduced IL-1β production. Cell. Mol. Immunol. 2020 doi:10.1038/s41423-020-00589-1
- Yang G, Song WQ, Postoak JL, Chen J, Martinez J, Zhang JH, Wu L, Van Kaer L. Autophagy-related protein Vps34 controls T cell metabolism and function. Autophagy. 2021 May;17(5):1193-1204. doi: 10.1080/15548627.2020.1752979. Epub 2020 Apr 16.
- Wu L, Rajeev D, Cao C, Postoak JL, Yang G, Zhang QK, Wang ZZ, Lal H, Van Kaer L. IL-10-producing B cells are enriched in murine pericardial adipose tissues and ameliorate the outcome of acute myocardial infarction. PNAS. 2019 116 (43) 21673-21684
- Van Kaer L, Postoak JL, Wang C, Yang G, Wu L. Innate, innate-like and adaptive lymphocytes in the pathogenesis of MS and EAE. Cell. Mol. Immunol. 2019 doi: 10.1038/s41423-019-0221-5. (Issue Cover)
- Yang G, Artiaga BL, Lomelino CL, Jayaprakash AD, Sachidanandam R, Mckenna R, Driver JP. Next generation sequencing of the pig αβ TCR repertoire identifies the porcine invariant NKT cell receptor. J. Immunol. 2019 Apr 1;202(7):1981-1991. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1801171. Epub 2019 Feb 18.
- Yang G, Driver JP, Van Kaer L. The Role of Autophagy in iNKT Cell Development. Front. Immunol. 2018 9:2653. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.02653.
- Yang G, Richt JA, Driver JP. Harnessing NKT cells to improve influenza vaccines: A pig perspective. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2017 19, 68; doi:10.3390/ijms19010068.
- Yang G*, Artiaga BL*, Lewis S, Driver JP. Characterizing Porcine Invariant Natural Killer T Cells: A Comparative Study with NK cells and T cells. Dev. Comp. Immunol. 2017 Nov;76:343-351. doi: 10.1016/j.dci.2017.07.006. (*equal contribution).
- Artiaga BL*, Yang G*, Hutchinson TE, Loeb JC, Richt JA, Salek-Ardakani S, Lednicky JA, and Driver JP. Rapid control of pandemic H1N1 influenza by targeting NKT cells. Sci Rep. 2016 doi: 10.1038/srep37999 (*equal contribution).
- Artiaga BL*, Yang G*, Hackmann TJ, Richt JA, Salek-Ardakani S, Castleman W, Lednicky JA, and Driver JP. Alpha-Galactosylceramide protects swine against influenza infection when administered as a vaccine adjuvant. Sci Rep. 2016 doi: 10.1038/srep23259 (*equal contribution).
- Yang G*, Artiaga BL*, Hackmann TJ, Samuel MS, Walters EM, Salek-Ardakani S, Driver JP. Targeted disruption of CD1d prevents NKT cell development in pigs. Mamm Genome. 2015 26: 264-70 doi: 10.1007/s00335-015-9564-0 (*equal contribution).