People¶
Current¶
Principal Investigator¶
About: I'm a physicist by training and have expertise in both theory and experiments. My scientific journey began as an undergraduate student at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) studying phenomenological particle physics. It inspired me to pursue a Ph.D. in physics at MIT, where I became fascinated with stochastic processes combining mathematical modeling and fluorescence microscopy at single-cell and single-molecule levels. I then expanded my research interests into systems biology and biochemistry as a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University to explore principles of robust developmental processes in early embryos. These interdisciplinary backgrounds have shaped my current research interests to integrate principles and tools from biophysics, systems and synthetic biology, and mechanobiology to gain a quantitative understanding of complex biological phenomena.
Postdoctoral Fellows¶
Education: Ph.D. in Cell Biology, Kyoto University
About: Gembu came from Japan. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in cell biology at Kyoto University, Japan. He acquired a live cell kinase activity imaging and an ontogenetic technique in his doctoral course. Now, he is interested in the principle of accuracy of mitotic phase entry. In the Yang Lab, he aims to address this mechanism with the cell-free system, live cell imaging, and mathematical modeling.
Graduate Students¶
NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Program (GRFP) 2023-2026
Rackham Merit Fellowship 2021-2023
Education: B.S. in Physics with a biomedical physics concentration, B.S. in Mathematics, University of Nebraska Omaha
About: I grew up in La Paz, Bolivia where I developed an interest in learning physics and asking deep metaphysical questions. I used my newly gained physics knowledge in the field of nanomaterials working on fluorescence labeling of DNA with Ag nanoparticles. Over time I decided to dive into the world of biological research where I found Yang lab, and the study of oscillatory cell signaling systems. In this field I hope to better understand the connections between the molecular interaction networks and the observed mesoscopic processes in mitosis.
Education: B.S. and M.S. in Physics, Pohang University of Science and Technology
About: I came from South Korea, where I grew up and obtained a degree in physics. During my former academic pursuits, I was trained in some data analysis techniques inspired by statistical physics. As statistical physics has taught me, life can be unpredictable at times, as I now find myself studying living systems here in Michigan. My current studies focus on the dynamical facets of biomolecular circuits, with a specific interest in the precision-keeping mechanisms of cell cycle oscillations during Xenopus embryogenesis. I'm utilizing tools borrowed from systems and synthetic biology.
Alumni¶
Postdoctoral Fellows¶
Meng Sun, Postdoctoral Fellow in Biophysics (Oct 2017-Oct 2020)
Education: Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry, Zhejiang University
Next position: Research Scientist, Zymeron Corporation, Research Triangle Park, NC
Ph.D. Graduate Students¶
Ye Guan, Graduae Student in Chemistry (Jan 2014-Dec 2017)
Thesis: A Robust and Tunable Mitotic Oscillator in Artificial Cells
Next position: Clinical Pharmacokineticist at MedImmune, CA
Zhengda Li, Graduate Student in Bioinformatics (May 2014-May 2019)
Thesis: Molecular Circuits of Biological Oscillators
Next position: Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University, CA
Owen Puls, Graduate Student in Physics (May 2017-June 2023)
Thesis: Spatial Coupling of Biological Oscillators: Towards a Quantitative Understanding of Mitotic Waves
Next position: Bioimage Data Analyst at the Advanced Imaging Center, HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus, VA
Shiyuan Wang, Graduate Student in Biophysics (May 2017-Feb 2024)
Thesis: Investigating the Regulatory Pathways of the Mitotic Oscillator Via a High-Throughput Droplet-Based System
Chun-Yen Sung, Graduate Student in Biophysics (May 2020-May 2024)
Thesis: Development of in vitro assays to study the mechanobiology of the segmentation clocks in presomitic mesoderm cells
Franco Tavella, Graduate Student in Biophysics (May 2020-Dec 2024)
Thesis: Robustness and Tunability of Biological Oscillations
Minjun Jin, Graduate Student in Biophysics (May 2019-Dec 2024)
Thesis: Nucleocytoplasmic Properties Shape Cell Cycle Oscillations and Transitions in Early Xenopus Development
Usha Kadiyala, Graduate Student in Biophysics (May 2019-June 2025)
Thesis: Spatiotemporal Coordination of Proliferation and Patterning in Early Embryonic Development
Derek Walker, Graduate Student in Physics (October 2019-September 2025)
Undergraduate Students¶
Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) (R25) Scholars¶
Jesse Cisneros Solis (B.S. in Physics at UCSC), 2018-2019
Next position: Graduate student in Biophysics at the University of Michigan
Undergraduate Honors Thesis Students¶
UM Honors Research Study: Daniel Khain, Patrick Michael Barnes (joined graduate school in Physics at UM), Aditi Jagadish, Varsha Kumar (joined Wayne State University Medical School), Mauricio Osuna Borges, Owen Blanchard (Biophysics 399, 2022)
Neha Bidthanapally, Summer 2018, The Wang Chu Chien-Wen Summer Research Fund Awards, Project: “Mitotic cycle study of Xenopus laevis embryonic cells”.
Minjun Jin, Honors Thesis: “The Reconstitution of Mitotic Oscillators in Artificial Cells Prepared from Xenopus Laevis Egg Extract” Chemistry and CMB (2018)
Seyhan N. Ege-WISE Award.
Next position: University of Michigan Graduate School in Biophysics
Suzie Kim, Honors Thesis: “The Development of a Zebrafish Cell-Free Extract for Cell Cycle Studies”. Biochemistry (2019)
Alumni Outstanding Award, Honors Summer Fellowship
Next position: Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine
Shuangzhe Lin, Honors Thesis: “Investigations of Coupled Oscillators in Segmentation and Mitotic Clocks During Zebrafish Somitogenesis”. Biochemistry (2020)
Next position: University of Pennsylvania Graduate School
Owen Blanchard, Honors Thesis: “Effects of Suppressed Cyclin B1 Protein Accumulation on Timing of Cell Cycle Events in Xenopus laevis Cell-Free Extract”. Biophysics (2023)
Next position: Research Laboratory Technician Associate at the University of Michigan
Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP)¶
Anna Teralyn Beck, John Hyunmin Kim, Lucas Merritt, Nancy Wu, Sagar Amrut Patel (joined Medical school at Saint Louis University), Sruthi Sathyakumar (joined Diplomat Fellow 2016 at Hurley Medical Center), Qianlin Song, Alexander Addison Hadd, Bo Qu, Mark D Antosz, Abigail Guilliat, Caleb Joseph Kaczmarek, Patrick Joseph Lawton, Navya Arigapudi, Darren Young, Ali Darwiche, Aditi Jagadish, Daniel Khain, Sarah Graber, Kristen Marani, Jack Guo, Jenny Mei, Brendan P Mccarthy (Physics 415), Kathryn Suarez (BME), Jolene Iseler, Saad Shami, Sucharitha Dinakaran, Andrea Huang, Gregory Kondas
Michigan Health Sciences Undergraduate Research Academy (MHSURA) Fellows¶
Neha Bidthanapally (2017), Wendi Wang, Lynn Kao
NSF Summer REU Program¶
Madeleine Lu (Biophysics REU 2014, joined graduate school in U Houston), Joshua Skootsky (Physics REU 2014), Jack Martin (Interdisciplinary REU 2015, NSF future faculty fellow), Leah Shapiro (Biophysics REU 2015), Ben Zeman, Olivia Marita (2022 Interdisciplinary REU Program), Ernesto Flores (Biophysics REU 2022, awarded Barry Goldwater Scholarship 2023)
Summer visiting students¶
Jin Qian (summer 2016, joined graduate school in Cornell), Weiguo Jing, Zhipeng Yao, Chenghang Zhang (joined graduate school in U of Maryland College Park), Yushan Yang (summer 2015, join graduate school in OSU), Shiyuan Wang (summer 2015, joined graduate school in U Michigan), Xuwen Liu (summer 2018, joined graduate school in École Polytechnique, France), Ran Chen, Zou Zhou, Yunkun Lin, Hongyu Liao (summer 2019, joined graduate school in Harvard), Yiyang Chen (joined graduate school in Washington University in St. Louis)
High school visiting students¶
Lucy Duan, James Yang, Daniel Khain (joined UM for undergraduate studies in Physics in 2018)
Awards and Fellowships to Yang Lab Trainees¶
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP) | Liam Yourston (2023-2026)
- The Barry Goldwater Scholarship | Ernesto Flores (2023)
- Rackham Doctoral Intern Fellowship | Franco Tavella (2023-2024)
- Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship | Minjun Jin (2023)
- Rackham Doctoral Intern Fellowship | Franco Tavella (2023-2024)
- Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship | Franco Tavella (2023)
- Visiting Scientist Program at the Advanced Imaging Center at HHMI Janelia Research Campus | Usha Kadiyala (2023)
- Rackham Merit Fellowship | Liam Yourston (2021-2023)
- Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship | Minjun Jin (2022-2023)
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP) | Usha Kadiyala (2020-2023)
- Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant | Usha Kadiyala (2020)
- Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant | Derek Walker (2020)
- Excellence in Upper-Level Writing Prize in Science | Franco Tavella (2020)
- Rackham International Student Fellowship | Chun-Yen Sung (2020)
- Rackham Interdisciplinary Workshops (RIW) - Biophysics Interdisciplinary Workshop ($5,000) | Usha Kadiyala, Jesse Cisneros Solis, Shiyuan Wang (2019-2020)
- MBSTP Symposium 2019 Poster Award | Meng Sun (May 2019)
- Rackham Merit Fellowship | Usha Kadiyala (2018-2020)
- NIH Microfluidics in Biomedical Sciences MBSTP Fellowship | Owen Puls (2018-2020)
- Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship | Zhengda Li (2018-2019)
- Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program (R25) Scholarship | Jesse Cisneros Solis (2018-2019)
- ASCB Travel Award | Zhengda Li (2018)
- Seyhan N. Ege-WISE Award | Minjun Jin (2018)
- Alumni Outstanding Award | Suzie Kim (2018)
- Honors Summer Fellowship (for completing honors thesis in my lab) | Suzie Kim (2018)
- Wang Chu Chien-Wen Summer Research Fund Awards | Neha Bidthanapally (2018)
- American Indian “Future Faculty Fellows” | Jack Martin (2014)
- 3rd Midwest Single Molecule Workshop Poster Award | Zhengda Li (2014)
Presentations by Yang Lab Trainees¶
- Usha Kadiyala (Poster), The International Society for Stem Cell Research ISSCR 2023 Annual Meeting, Vienna International Symposium, “Elucidating Principles of Development with Stem Cells”. Vienna, Austria. Dec 2023
- Gembu Maryu (Talk), American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting 2023, Boston, MA. Dec 2023
- Yeonghoon Kim (Talk), American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting 2023, Boston, MA. Dec 2023
- Gembu Maryu (Talk), 19th International Xenopus Conference Cambridge, MD. Aug 2023
- Liam Yourston (Poster), 19th International Xenopus Conference Cambridge, MD. Aug 2023
- Minjun Jin (Poster), 19th International Xenopus Conference Cambridge, MD. Aug 2023
- Usha Kadiyala (Talk and Team Project), Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) Course at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “Dynamics of Self-Organization in Animal and Plant Development”. Jul-Aug 2023
- Usha Kadiyala (Poster), The International Society for Stem Cell Research ISSCR 2023 Annual Meeting, Boston, MA. Jun 2023
- Usha Kadiyala (Talk), American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting 2022, Washington, DC. Dec 2022
- Gembu Maryu (Poster), American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting 2022, Washington, DC. Dec 2022
- Owen Puls (Poster), American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting 2022, Washington, DC. Dec 2022
- Franco Tavella (Poster), American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting 2022, Washington, DC. Dec 2022
- Owen Puls (Poster), American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting 2022, Washington, DC. Dec 2022
- Usha Kadiyala (Talk), Center for Physics of Biology Function Student and Postdoc Symposium, NYC. Nov 2022
- Franco Tavella (Group discussion), Build-a-Cell Workshop #9: Stanford. Stanford, CA. Oct 2022
- Shiyuan Wang (Talk), Biophysics Annual Retreat, Ann Arbor, MI. Oct 2022
- Gembu Maryu (Poster), DCMB 10th Anniversary celebration and poster session, Ann Arbor, MI. Sept 2022
- Ernesto Flores (Poster), SACNAS Conference, Puerto Rico. Sept 2022
- Ernesto Flores (Poster), RISE Undergraduate Research Showcase, San Antonio. Aug 2022
- Olivia Marita (Talk), 2022 Interdisciplinary REU Closing Symposium, Ann Arbor, MI. Aug 2022
- Ernesto Flores (Talk), Biophysics and Physics REU Symposium, Ann Arbor, MI. Aug 2022
- Usha Kadiyala (Poster), Santa Cruz Developmental Biology meeting, Santa Cruz, CA. Aug 2022
- Usha Kadiyala (Spotlight Talk), Joint SDB-PASEDB Meeting Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Jul 2022
- Franco Tavella (Contributed Talk), 15th Annual q-bio Conference, Fort Collins, CO. Jun 2022
- Gembu Maryu (Spotlight Talk), 15th Annual q-bio Conference, Fort Collins, CO. Jun 2022
- Usha Kadiyala, 4th Annual Conference on Quantitative Approaches in Biology, Evanston, IL Mar 2022
- Franco Tavella (Talk), APS March Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL. Mar 2022
- Owen Puls (Talk), APS March Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL. Mar 2022
- Minjun Jin (Poster), Cell Bio Virtual 2021- Online ASCB|EMBO Meeting. Dec 2021
- Usha Kadiyala (Talk), Biophysics Seminar Series, Ann Arbor, MI. Nov 2021
- Minjun Jin (Talk), Biophysics Seminar Series, Ann Arbor, MI. Oct 2021
- Franco Tavella (Talk), Biophysics Annual Retreat, Ann Arbor, MI. Oct 2021
- Gembu Maryu (Talk), 2021 CCDC (Cytoskeleton and Cell Division Club). Ann Arbor, MI. June 2021
- Minjun Jin (Talk), Super-Duper Group Meeting (groups with shared quantitative biology interest across campus: physics, biophysics, math, and cell and developmental biology departments). Ann Arbor, MI. May 2021
- Franco Tavella (Talk), Super-Duper Group Meeting (groups with shared quantitative biology interest across campus: physics, biophysics, math, and cell and developmental biology departments). Ann Arbor, MI. May 2021
- Minjun Jin (Talk), Microfluidics in Biomedical Sciences (MBSTP) Symposium 2021. MI. May 2021
- Gembu Maryu (Talk), Biophysics Annual Retreat, Ann Arbor, MI. Aug 2020
- Jesse Solis, Biophysical Society (BPS) Annual Meeting, San Deigo, CA. Feb 2020
- Meng Sun (Talk), Biophysics Annual Retreat, Ann Arbor, MI. Aug 2019
- Owen Puls (Poster), 13th Annual q-bio Conference. San Francisco, CA. Aug 2019
- Shiyuan Wang (Poster), 13th Annual q-bio Conference. San Francisco, CA. Aug 2019
- Owen Puls (Talk), 2019 Cytoskeleton and Cell Division Club (CCDC). MI. July 2019
- Meng Sun (Poster Award), MBSTP Symposium 2019. Ann Arbor, MI. May 2019
- Owen Puls (Talk), Microfluidics in Biomedical Sciences (MBSTP) Symposium 2019. MI. May 2019
- Shiyuan Wang (Talk), Biophysics Annual Retreat, Ann Arbor, MI. August 2018
- Owen Puls (Talk), Biophysics Annual Retreat, Ann Arbor, MI. August 2018
- Chun-Yen Sung (Talk), BIRS workshop "Mathematical Approaches to Cell-Cell Communication and Collective Behaviours" in Banff, Alberta, Canada. July 2018
- Owen Puls (Talk), BIRS workshop "Mathematical Approaches to Cell-Cell Communication and Collective Behaviours" in Banff, Alberta, Canada. July 2018
- Zhengda Li (Talk), BIRS workshop "Mathematical Approaches to Cell-Cell Communication and Collective Behaviours" in Banff, Alberta, Canada. July 2018
- Shiyuan Wang (Talk), BIRS workshop "Mathematical Approaches to Cell-Cell Communication and Collective Behaviours" in Banff, Alberta, Canada. July 2018
- Zhengda Li (Talk), Cell Modeling Hackathons, Half Moon Bay, CA. March 2018
- Zhengda Li (Poster), 2018 Annual Winter q-Bio Conference, Maui-Grand Wailea, HI. February 2018
- Zhengda Li (Poster), 2017 Annual ASCB|EMBO Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA. December 2017
- Zhengda Li (Talk), Biophysics Annual Retreat, Ann Arbor, MI. August 2017
- Ye Guan, Cells as Dynamical Systems Workshop, San Francisco CA. May 2017
- Zhengda Li, Cells as Dynamical Systems Workshop, San Francisco CA. May 2017
- Nigel Michki (Lightening Talk), 5th Midwest Quantitative Biology Symposium, Notre Dame, IN. April 2017
- Owen Puls (Poster), 5th Midwest Quantitative Biology Symposium, Notre Dame, IN. April 2017
- Shiyuan Wang (Poster), 5th Midwest Quantitative Biology Symposium, Notre Dame, IN. April 2017
- Ye Guan (Poster), 10th Annual q-bio Conference, Nashville, TN. July 2016
- Zhengda Li (Poster), 10th Annual q-bio Conference, Nashville, TN. July 2016
- Maddie Lu (Undergraduate Talk), Closing Symposium for the Interdisciplinary REU Program, August 2014
- Maddie Lu (Undergraduate Talk), Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS), August 2014
- Zhengda Li (Poster Award), 3rd Midwest Single Molecule Workshop, Urbana, IL. August 2014
- Joshua Skootsky (Undergrad Poster), 3rd Midwest Single Molecule Workshop, Urbana, IL. August 2014