After completing his postdoc training at the University of Chicago in 2010, Dr. Yang has joined CWRU and initiated cross-disciplinary, experimental-computational studies on human Estrogen Receptor alpha (ERα), a key driver of breast cancer. His laboratory has a keen focus on ERα-related biophysics, cancer biology, and drug discovery from the perspectives of both intramolecular domain interaction and its intrinsically disordered region. Equally importantly, another focus is on contributing to the emerging field of integrative biophysics and developing proprietary ERα-specific drug discovery platforms. His research has benefited from close collaboration with laboratories here in Cleveland and other parts of the globe.
My research is in estrogen receptor biophysics, cancer biology, and drug discovery.
Teaching Information
Courses Taught
Office Hours
By appointment
Research Information
Research Interests
- Multifaceted integration for estrogen receptor
- Biophysics of estrogen receptor disorder
- Targeted disruption of estrogen receptor activation
- Drugging the undrugged for advanced ER-positive breast cancer
Research Projects
Recent Funding
- NIH/NIGMS (R01 GM114056), 08/01/15-07/31/25; Role: PI
- NIH/NCI (R03CA241977), 04/01/20–03/31/22; Role: PI
- NIH/NCI (R01 CA256161), 04/01/21–03/31/26; Role: PI of subaward
- Breast Cancer Alliance, 02/01/20–07/31/21; Role: PI
Awards and Honors
Publications
Selected Publications
- Huang W, Peng Y, Kiselar J, Zhao X, Albaqami A, Mendez D, Chen Y-H, Chakravarthy S, Gupta S, Ralston C, Kao H-Y, Chance MR, and Yang S "Multidomain architecture of estrogen receptor reveals interfacial cross-talk between its DNA-binding and ligand-binding domains," Nature Communications, 9 (1) 3520, (2018); PMID: 30166540 PMCID: PMC6117352; Press release: EurekAlert, Argonne National lab
- Peng Y, Cao S, Kiselar J, Xiao X, Du Z, Hsieh A, Ko S, Chen Y, Agrawal P, Zheng W, Shi W, Jiang W, Yang L, Chance MR, Surewicz WK, Buck M, and Yang S. "A metastable contact and structural disorder in the estrogen receptor transactivation domain," Structure, 27 (2) 229-240, (2019); PMCID: PMC6365180; Featured in a preview by Manalastas and Svergun, Structure, 27 (2) 207-208, (2019)
- Huang W, Ravikumar KM, Parisien M, and Yang S. "Theoretical modeling of multiprotein complexes by iSPOT: Integration of small-angle X-ray scattering, hydroxyl radical footprinting, and computational docking," Journal of Structural Biology,196 (3) 340-349 (2016); PMID: 27496803 PMCID: PMC5118146
- Yang S* and Bernado P, "Integrative Biophysics: protein interaction and disorder," Journal of Molecular Biology, 432 (9) 2843-2845 (2020) [Editorial overview for the special issue on integrative biophysics]