Current Research and Scholarly Interests
Dr. Yang's research is focused on bridging the translational gap at the interface of molecular biology, biochemistry, genome science, engineering, and acute care medicine. The investigative interest of the Yang lab falls within the general theme of developing integrative systems-level approaches for precision diagnostics, as well as data driven knowledge discoveries, to improve the health outcome and our understanding of complex critical illnesses. Using acute infectious disease models with complex host-pathogen dynamics, the goals of the Yang lab are divided into 3 areas:
1) Developing high-content, near-patient, diagnostic systems for rapid, unbiased pathogen detection and characterization to personalize treatment options and duration.
2) Integrating multi-omics molecular and phenotypic data layers with novel computational approaches into advanced diagnostics and predictive analytics for acute infections.
3) Understanding the biological roles of the secondary structures of extracellular nucleic acids in the contexts of neutrophil extracellular traps and biofilms.