News
Dr. Yang receives new grant
July 26, 2023
Dr. Yang, as the principle investigator, received the Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) (R35) from National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). This major grant provides long-term support for Yang Lab's research on structural and functional studies of coronavirus genome replication and transcription.
Dr. Yang receives the Postdoctoral Principal Investigator Mentoring Award
June 30, 2023
Dr. Yang won the 2023 Postdoctoral Principal Investigator Mentoring Award, which recognizes principal investigators’ excellence in their mentorship of postdoctoral scholars. The purpose of the award is to promote a collaborative research environment for postdoctoral scholars at Iowa State, eventually leading to their successful transitions to the next stage in their career.
Yang Lab receives new grant
May 23, 2022
Dr. Yang, together with other component PIs of the Midwest Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Center, 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.