Yang Yang
University of California, Santa Barbara · Chemistry and Biochemistry
Active 1996–2024
About
Yang Yang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on devising novel biocatalytic and protein engineering strategies to address challenging problems in synthetic organic chemistry. His laboratory employs directed evolution to leverage enzymatic platforms for precise regio- and stereocontrol over catalytic reactions, expanding the catalytic capabilities of enzymes beyond their natural biochemical functions. Additionally, Yang's team develops concise chemoenzymatic syntheses of stereochemically complex natural products, combining organic synthesis with enzyme catalysis to facilitate the assembly of biologically active compounds for antibiotic and anticancer activity evaluation. The lab also explores machine learning-guided directed evolution to accelerate the discovery and optimization of enzymatic functions that are not naturally encountered in biology. Yang obtained his B.S. in Chemistry from Peking University in 2011, completed his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at MIT in 2016 under Prof. Stephen L. Buchwald, and conducted postdoctoral research with Prof. Frances H. Arnold at Caltech, where he engineered P450 enzymes for asymmetric C-H amination. His work integrates organic chemistry, enzymology, protein engineering, and machine learning, contributing to advancements in green chemistry, energy, catalysis, and biomedical sciences.
Research topics
- Chemistry
- Combinatorial chemistry
- Organic chemistry
- Materials science
- Medicinal chemistry
Recent grants
Achieving 15% PCE Solution Processed Hybrid Triple-Junction Solar Cells
NSF · $360k · 2012–2016
An Evolvable Metalloenzyme Platform for Stereoselective Radical Biocatalysis
NIH · $2.0M · 2022–2027
Biocatalytic Methods for the Asymmetric Synthesis of Amines
NIH · $77k · 2019–2022
Frequent coauthors
- 51 shared
Sayeef Salahuddin
- 51 shared
Jeffrey Bokor
- 51 shared
Jon Gorchon
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- 49 shared
G. Groeseneken
KU Leuven
- 49 shared
Y. H. Jeong
- 49 shared
K.D.P. Nigam
- 49 shared
Pierpaolo Palestri
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
- 49 shared
Francesco Settino
University of Calabria
Labs
Yang LabPI
Education
Ph.D., Department of Chemistry
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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