The Yang Lab of Computational and Systems Biology studies how cellular states and interactions shape human disease and therapeutic response. We integrate single-cell and spatial multi-omics, computational and quantitative modeling, and functional experiments to uncover the molecular programs and spatial organization of complex tissues.
Our research spans cancer immunology and neurodegenerative disease, with a particular interest in understanding how immune and tissue cell states are established, how cells communicate within their native tissue environments, and how these processes can be predicted or manipulated. Current projects investigate dendritic-cell regulatory programs and anti-tumor immunity, spatial organization of the tumor microenvironment, cellular and regulatory changes in Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease, and computational methods for high-resolution spatial biology.
Students in the lab can pursue computational, experimental, or integrative projects using approaches including single-cell RNA and chromatin profiling, spatial transcriptomics, machine learning and quantitative modeling, CRISPR perturbation, cell culture, and functional assays.