Otto Yang
USERN Advisory Board
Biography
Otto Yang has been on faculty since 1999, and received his associate professorship in 2004 and full professorship in 2009. He is a physician-scientist with a background in clinical infectious diseases, and his laboratory specializes in T cell immunology in HIV infection. He received his bachelor and MD degrees from Brown University, with subsequent residency training at NYU-Bellevue Hospital, and subspecialty/postdoctoral training at Harvard-Massachusetts General Hospital. His research emphasizes basic science with clinical implications, and he has a joint appointment in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, and Department of Medicine. His current research interests include: mechanisms of HIV escape from T cells through mutation and through MHC downregulation, determinants of T cell antiviral function, HIV vaccine strategies, small molecule inhibitors of the HIV Nef protein, studies of long term nonprogressing HIV patients, generation of T cell receptors for gene therapy.
Education
Harvard Medical School
Fellowship, Infectious Diseases
1993 – 1997
Bellevue Hospital, New York University
Residency, Internal Medicine
1990 – 1993
Brown Medical School
MD, Medicine
1986 – 1990
Oak Ridge High School
1980 – 1983
Experience
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Professor
1999 – Present
CDR3 Therapeutics
Founder and Medical Director
2019 – Present
Applied Medical
Board of Directors Member
2015 – Present
UCLA Medical School
Professor
1999 – Present
AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Director of Scientific Research
2012 – 2019
Ozyma
Co-Founder and Scientific Director
2015 – 2017
Startup biotech company for oral delivery of bioactive enzymes. The proof-of-concept enzyme is to metabolize ethanol.
Harvard Medical School
Instructor
1997 – 1999
Cedar Junction State Prison
HIV Physician
1996 – 1999
Sole provider of HIV care for the only maximum security state prison in Massachusetts at the time.
Brown University
Student Researcher
1984 – 1990
Research Interests
Dr. Yang’s laboratory is interested in antiviral cellular immunity in HIV-infected individuals. The goals of this research are: to understand how the immune system keeps HIV-1 under control during asymptomatic infection, why this immunity eventually fails, and how the virus has developed mechanisms to avoid cellular immunity. These principles address important questions in understanding the immunopathogenesis of HIV-1, and have implications in immune therapies and vaccine development. In particular, Dr. Yang has studied the mechanisms of HIV suppression by HIV-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), which kill infected cells by recognizing viral peptides. His laboratory has demonstrated that CTL are potent killers of virus-infected cells and suppress HIV-1 replication through both killing and release of antiviral cytokines. Ongoing research is focused on the factors that influence the efficiency of the CTL. Further work in the laboratory is focused on the mechanisms contributing to immune failure to contain HIV-1. The virus has genes that interfere with immune recognition, and is able to mutate to become resistant to CTL, much in the same manner as against antiretroviral drugs. Using a system of cloned HIV-1-specific CTL and infected cells, these interactions are being studied by using these cells and genetic engineering of HIV-1 to alter specific functions of genes believed to affect the immune system. Other active projects in the laboratory include studies of: whether the route of vaccination (deltoid versus inguinal) differentially affects immunity in the mucosal compartment, long term immunologic sequelae of perinatal HIV-1 infection, strategies to address the “aging” and loss of CTL function due to chronic turnover in HIV-1 infection, characterization of immune responses in long term nonprogressors, antiviral activities of peptides produced by the innate immune system. In addition to these research interests, Dr. Yang is also a clinician who maintains an active clinical role in the Division of Infectious Diseases.
Most Cited Publications:
Hydrodynamic stretching of single cells for large population mechanical phenotyping
DR Gossett, TK Henry, SA Lee, Y Ying, AG Lindgren, OO Yang, J Rao, ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 (20), 7630-7635
2012
Rapid decay of anti–SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in persons with mild Covid-19
FJ Ibarrondo, JA Fulcher, D Goodman-Meza, J Elliott, C Hofmann, ...
New England Journal of Medicine 383 (11), 1085-1087 2020
β-chemokines are released from HIV-1-specific cytolytic T-cell granules complexed to proteoglycans
L Wagner, OO Yang, EA Garcia-Zepeda, Y Ge, SA Kalams, BD Walker, ...
Nature 391 (6670), 908-911 1998
Suppression of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 replication by CD8+ cells: evidence for HLA class I-restricted triggering of cytolytic and noncytolytic mechanisms.
OO Yang, SA Kalams, A Trocha, H Cao, A Luster, RP Johnson, BD Walker
Journal of virology 71 (4), 3120-3128 1997
Retrocyclin: a primate peptide that protects cells from infection by T-and M-tropic strains of HIV-1
AM Cole, T Hong, LM Boo, T Nguyen, C Zhao, G Bristol, JA Zack, ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99 (4), 1813-1818
2002
Gag-specific CD8+ T lymphocytes recognize infected cells before AIDS-virus integration and viral protein expression
JB Sacha, C Chung, EG Rakasz, SP Spencer, AK Jonas, AT Bean, W Lee, ...
The Journal of Immunology 178 (5), 2746-2754 2007
Otto Yang has been on faculty since 1999, and received his associate professorship in 2004 and full professorship in 2009. He is a physician-scientist with a background in clinical infectious diseases, and his laboratory specializes in T cell immunology in HIV infection. He received his bachelor and MD degrees from Brown University, with subsequent residency training at NYU-Bellevue Hospital, and subspecialty/postdoctoral training at Harvard-Massachusetts General Hospital. His research emphasizes basic science with clinical implications, and he has a joint appointment in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, and Department of Medicine. His current research interests include: mechanisms of HIV escape from T cells through mutation and through MHC downregulation, determinants of T cell antiviral function, HIV vaccine strategies, small molecule inhibitors of the HIV Nef protein, studies of long term nonprogressing HIV patients, generation of T cell receptors for gene therapy.
Education
Harvard Medical School
Fellowship, Infectious Diseases
1993 – 1997
Bellevue Hospital, New York University
Residency, Internal Medicine
1990 – 1993
Brown Medical School
MD, Medicine
1986 – 1990
Oak Ridge High School
1980 – 1983
Experience
Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Professor
1999 – Present
CDR3 Therapeutics
Founder and Medical Director
2019 – Present
Applied Medical
Board of Directors Member
2015 – Present
UCLA Medical School
Professor
1999 – Present
AIDS Healthcare Foundation
Director of Scientific Research
2012 – 2019
Ozyma
Co-Founder and Scientific Director
2015 – 2017
Startup biotech company for oral delivery of bioactive enzymes. The proof-of-concept enzyme is to metabolize ethanol.
Harvard Medical School
Instructor
1997 – 1999
Cedar Junction State Prison
HIV Physician
1996 – 1999
Sole provider of HIV care for the only maximum security state prison in Massachusetts at the time.
Brown University
Student Researcher
1984 – 1990
Research Interests
Dr. Yang’s laboratory is interested in antiviral cellular immunity in HIV-infected individuals. The goals of this research are: to understand how the immune system keeps HIV-1 under control during asymptomatic infection, why this immunity eventually fails, and how the virus has developed mechanisms to avoid cellular immunity. These principles address important questions in understanding the immunopathogenesis of HIV-1, and have implications in immune therapies and vaccine development. In particular, Dr. Yang has studied the mechanisms of HIV suppression by HIV-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL), which kill infected cells by recognizing viral peptides. His laboratory has demonstrated that CTL are potent killers of virus-infected cells and suppress HIV-1 replication through both killing and release of antiviral cytokines. Ongoing research is focused on the factors that influence the efficiency of the CTL. Further work in the laboratory is focused on the mechanisms contributing to immune failure to contain HIV-1. The virus has genes that interfere with immune recognition, and is able to mutate to become resistant to CTL, much in the same manner as against antiretroviral drugs. Using a system of cloned HIV-1-specific CTL and infected cells, these interactions are being studied by using these cells and genetic engineering of HIV-1 to alter specific functions of genes believed to affect the immune system. Other active projects in the laboratory include studies of: whether the route of vaccination (deltoid versus inguinal) differentially affects immunity in the mucosal compartment, long term immunologic sequelae of perinatal HIV-1 infection, strategies to address the “aging” and loss of CTL function due to chronic turnover in HIV-1 infection, characterization of immune responses in long term nonprogressors, antiviral activities of peptides produced by the innate immune system. In addition to these research interests, Dr. Yang is also a clinician who maintains an active clinical role in the Division of Infectious Diseases.
Most Cited Publications:
Hydrodynamic stretching of single cells for large population mechanical phenotyping
DR Gossett, TK Henry, SA Lee, Y Ying, AG Lindgren, OO Yang, J Rao, ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109 (20), 7630-7635
2012
Rapid decay of anti–SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in persons with mild Covid-19
FJ Ibarrondo, JA Fulcher, D Goodman-Meza, J Elliott, C Hofmann, ...
New England Journal of Medicine 383 (11), 1085-1087 2020
β-chemokines are released from HIV-1-specific cytolytic T-cell granules complexed to proteoglycans
L Wagner, OO Yang, EA Garcia-Zepeda, Y Ge, SA Kalams, BD Walker, ...
Nature 391 (6670), 908-911 1998
Suppression of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 replication by CD8+ cells: evidence for HLA class I-restricted triggering of cytolytic and noncytolytic mechanisms.
OO Yang, SA Kalams, A Trocha, H Cao, A Luster, RP Johnson, BD Walker
Journal of virology 71 (4), 3120-3128 1997
Retrocyclin: a primate peptide that protects cells from infection by T-and M-tropic strains of HIV-1
AM Cole, T Hong, LM Boo, T Nguyen, C Zhao, G Bristol, JA Zack, ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99 (4), 1813-1818
2002
Gag-specific CD8+ T lymphocytes recognize infected cells before AIDS-virus integration and viral protein expression
JB Sacha, C Chung, EG Rakasz, SP Spencer, AK Jonas, AT Bean, W Lee, ...
The Journal of Immunology 178 (5), 2746-2754 2007
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