Hongyuan (Rob) Yang University of New South Wales, Australia

Dr. Hongyuan Robert Yang is currently a professor at the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He obtained a Bachelor of Medicine degree from Peking University (Beijing, China) in 1993; and a Ph.D. from Columbia University (New York, USA) in 1998. His work focuses on lipid storage and trafficking in eukaryotic cells and animals. His group identified a number of gene products that regulate the growth of lipid droplets. One of those, SEIPIN, is also essential for adipogenesis. His group is now working on how SEIPIN and other proteins regulate the growth of lipid droplets, and how the contact between lipid droplets and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is formed. His group also identified and characterized a number of proteins that regulate cellular lipid trafficking and homeostasis. In particular, his group unveiled a role for PI(4,5)P₂ in the formation of ER-plasma membrane contact, and in the lipid transfer function of mammalian oxysterol binding proteins (OSBP and ORPs).

Lab Website: http://www.babs.unsw.edu.au/staff_academic/professor-hongyuan-rob-yang