Jiyuan Jane Yang headshot

Jiyuan (Jane) Yang, Ph.D.

Academic Information

Departments College of Pharmacy , Research Professor - Molecular Pharmaceutics

Academic Office Information

jiyuan.yang@utah.edu

801-581-6835

Lab

Research Interests

  • Combination chemotherapy and immunotherapy of immunosuppressive cancers
  • Macromolecular therapeutics for brain delivery and treatment of primary central nervous system lymphoma and traumatic brain injury
  • Drug-free macromolecular therapeutics as a B-cell depletion strategy for various diseases
  • Crosslinking-mediated endocytosis
  • Antibody-drug conjugates

Jane received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China in 1986, M.S. in Polymer Materials from Dalian Technical University in 1989, and Ph.D. in Biomedical Polymer Science from Peking University in 2001. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Physical Chemistry, Institute Curie in Paris, France, Jane joined our lab in 2003. Jane has been working on biomaterials and drug delivery over 30 years, from injectable biodegradable (polyesters i.e. PLA-b-PGA) vaccine-delivery microspheres to new constructs of antibody-drug conjugates, in particular N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide (HPMA)-based bioconjugates. This design integrates the high specificity of antibody-drug conjugates with advantages of macromolecular therapeutics. Jane’s research interests focus on development of innovative therapeutics for cancer treatment and preclinical translation. Currently, our lab is cooperating with Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory, National Cancer Institute on the evaluation of our new platform technology, a combined chemo-immunotherapy, which will significantly improve immunotherapy response rate and minimize potential immune-related adverse events.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Research in the Kopeček/Yang Biomedical Polymers Laboratory in the Center for Controlled Chemical Delivery focuses on the design, synthesis, and characterization of biomedical materials and macromolecular therapeutics. We are studying tailor-made hybrid macromolecules which mimic structures developed by Mother Nature. The interdisciplinary research field involves synthetic and physical chemistry, molecular engineering, pharmaceutics, molecular biology, and immunology. The major projects are described below:

RELATED LINKS

FAR Page

Kopeček / Yang Research Group

College of Pharmacy

Education History

Undergraduate Tsinghua University
 BS, Chemical Engineering
Graduate Training Dalian Institute of Technology
 MS, Polymer Materials
Doctoral Training Peking University
 PhD, Biomedical Polymer Science
Postdoctoral Fellowship Institute Curie
 Postdoctoral Fellow, Liquid Crystal Elastomers (Artificial Muscle)

Selected Publications

Journal Article

  1. Human Serum Albumin-Based Drug-Free Macromolecular Therapeutics Induce Apoptosis in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Patient Cells by Crosslinking of CD20 and/or CD38 Receptors. J. Li, M.T. Gambles, B. Jones, J.A. Williams, N.J. Camp, P.J. Shami, J. Yang, J. Kopeček. Drug Delivery Translational Res. (2024); [doi].

  2. Obinutuzumab-Based Drug-Free Macromolecular Therapeutics Synergizes with Topoisomerase Inhibitors. M.T. Gambles, D. Sborov, P. Shami, J. Yang, J. Kopeček. Macromol. Biosci. (2023) 2300375; [doi]

  3. Multi-Targeted Immunotherapeutics to Treat B Cell Malignancies. M.T. Gambles, J. Yang, J. Kopeček. J. Controlled Release 358, 232-258 (2023); [doi]

    More Selected Publications