Da Yang

Since joining Pitt in 2014, Dr. Yang has established a highly visible and well-funded research program. His laboratory has published more than 80 peer-reviewed articles, including senior-author papers in Cancer Cell, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Cell Genomics, Nature Communications, and Science Advances. His work has been cited more than 20,000 times, reflecting its global influence. Major discoveries from his group include the identification of EPIC1 as an oncogenic lncRNA (Cancer Cell, 2018; Science Signaling, 2025), development of predictive models for chemotherapy and immunotherapy response (Nature Communications, 2018; Science Advances, 2021; Nature Communications, 2024), and pioneering genome-wide CRISPR activation screens to identify lncRNA regulators of tumor immunology (Science Advances, 2023). Most recently, his team characterized the noncanonical RNA-binding functions of the transcription factors MYC (Cell Genomics, 2025) and PXR (Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2025), opening new avenues to study and therapeutically target these master regulators across diverse physiopathological contexts. Dr. Yang currently serves as principal investigator on three NIH R01 grants and has received funding from the American Cancer Society, the Elsa U. Pardee Foundation, and the University of Pittsburgh Ovarian Cancer SPORE. His scientific contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including the AACR Team Science Award (2020), the American Cancer Society Research Scholar Award (2018), and designation as a Hillman Fellow for Innovative Cancer Research (2020). Dr. Yang is deeply committed to teaching and mentoring. He coordinates and teaches graduate and PharmD courses in biochemistry, genomics, and cancer therapy, consistently earning strong evaluations for fostering inclusive and effective learning environments. He has mentored more than 30 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and visiting scholars, many of whom have received prestigious awards and fellowships (e.g., NIH K99R00 award). Seminars “Integrated Analysis of Ovarian Cancer”, Advances in Oncology Institutional Grand Rounds, 9/28/12, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX “LncRNAs as master regulator for cancer progression and chemotherapy response”, 5/2/2019, the 5th Great Lakes Breast Cancer Symposium, Columbus, OH “Integrative Analyses Identify LncRNAs as Master Regulators for Cancer Immune Evasion and Drug Response”, 7/24/2019, The Institute of Immuno-oncology, Columbus, OH “Epigenetic Modulation to Improve the Response to Immunotherapy in Triple Negative Breast Cancer”, July 20, 2020, National Cancer Institute (NCI) Breast Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) meeting, “Unleash the Power of Multi-omics to Characterize the Pharmacogenomic Landscape of Disease”. 8/26/2020, Tulane University. 6823 St. Charles Avenue New Orleans, LA “Targeting Highly Tumor-specific Long Non-coding RNAs for Cancer Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Therapy”. 6/22/2022, NextRNA Therapeutics, 40 Guest St, Boston, MA 02135 “Genomic Intelligence Unleashed: Navigating Therapeutic Landscapes in Cancer”, 1/26/2024, Department of Biostatistics & Health Data Science, School of Medicine, University of Indiana. “The Genomic Medicine Era: Transforming Cancer Care with Personalized Solutions”, 3/16/2024, Stony Brook University Cancer Center, Stony Brook University, New York. “Bridging Genomic Landscapes to Translational Pharmacogenomics in Disease”, 5/23/2024, Center for Discovery & Innovation, Hackensack Meridian Health, Nutley, NJ, 07110

Wang Y*, Pattarayan D*, Huang H*, Zhao Y, Li S, Wang Y, Zhang M, Li S, Yang D#. Systematic investigation of chemo-immunotherapy synergism to shift anti-PD-1 resistance in cancer. Nat Commun. 2024 Apr 12;15(1):3178. 2. Yifei Wang* , Yueshan Zhao* , Weiwei Guo* , Ghanshyam Singh Yadav , Chetana Bhaskarla, et. al., Binfeng Lu , Udai S Kammula, Min Zhang# , Da Yang#. Genome-wide gain-of-function screening characterized lncRNA regulators for tumor immune response, Sci Adv. 2022 Dec 9;8(49):eadd0005. 3. Guo, W., Wang, Y., Yang, M., Wang, Z., Wang, Y., Chaurasia, S., Wu, Z., Zhang, M., Yadav, G., Rathod, S., et al., Yang D#. LincRNA-immunity landscape analysis identifies EPIC1 as a regulator of tumor immune evasion by inhibiting IFN-γ-JAK-STAT1 signaling and antigen presentation. Sci Adv. 2021 Fe