About Us » FFB Funded Researchers
Xian-JieYang, Ph.D.
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Xian-Jie Yang, Ph.D. joined the Jules Stein Eye Institute as a faculty member in 1996 and is currently an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the UCLA School of Medicine. As the principal investigator, Dr. Yang directs research activities centered on mechanisms of retinal development and differentiation, especially on roles of cell extrinsic signals in progenitor/stem cell fate specification. Her laboratory is also involved in developing gene and cell based therapies for retinal degenerative diseases. Dr. Yang obtained her Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology at Cornell University studying transcription elongation and termination under Dr. Jeffrey W. Roberts, a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Prior to joining the Jules Stein Eye Institute, Dr. Yang trained as a postdoctoral follow at Harvard Medical School with Dr. Constance L Cepko, a Howard Hughes investigator and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. As a postdoctoral research fellow, Dr. Yang received the prestigious Helen Hay Whitney Foundation fellowship, and subsequently the Medical Foundation/King Trust fellowship and an NIH NRSA Service Award. Her scientific research was focused on cell-cell interaction and growth factor signal transduction during development and differentiation of the mammalian retina. After becoming an independent investigator at UCLA, Dr. Yang has continued her studies on molecular mechanisms that regulate retinal progenitor cell fate commitment and differentiation. Past and current projects include investigating functions of growth factors Sonic hedgehog (Shh), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) in normal retinogenesis and disease models. In addition, Dr. Yang and colleagues has developed a lentiviral vector based gene therapy for the combined blindness and deafness Usher1B syndrome. Dr. Yang has received several awards at UCLA including a career development award and the Dolly Green Special Scholar’s award from Research to Prevent Blindness, the Basil O’Connor Starter Scholar’s Award from the March of Dimes Birth Defect Foundation, the Stein-Oppenheimer Endowment and the Frontier of Science Awards from UCLA, and Research Awards from the Karl Kirchgessner Foundation. Her research is funded by the National Eye Institute and Foundation Fighting Blindness. She has served on grant review panels for the National Institutes of Health (US), National Science Foundation (US), Wellcome Trust (UK), NHMRC (Australia), the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (China), and Foundation Fighting Blindness (US). |
