News
Yang Lab receives new grant
May 23, 2022
The Midwest Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Center that Yang Lab is involved in has received $66 million from NIAID. Our Center is part of a network of nine national centers established by NIAID in response to the public health emergency caused by COVID-19. We will conduct innovative, multidisciplinary research to develop antivirals targeting coronaviruses and other potential pandemic RNA viruses.
August 3, 2021
The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has demonstrated a stubborn ability to resist most nucleoside antiviral treatments, but a new study led by an Iowa State University scientist, Dr. Yang Yang, could help to overcome the virus’s defenses.
The process of multidrug-activated transcription visualized by cryo-EM
May 11, 2021
The rapid emergence of antibiotic resistance in bacteria is a major global challenge. A better understanding of the molecular mechanism governing the gene expression regulation by the multidrug-sensing MerR family regulators in response to diverse drug molecules is critical for the treatment of bacterial infections. In our lab's new study, we reported one crystal structure of a multidrug-sensing MerR family regulator EcmrR and nine cryo-EM structures that capture the EcmrR-dependent transcription process from promoter opening to initial transcription to RNA elongation. Our findings provide a comprehensive model for transcription regulation by the MerR family regulators, with broad mechanistic implications for multidrug resistance in bacteria.