Principal Investigators
weiyang@gate.sinica.edu.tw +886-2-2785-5696,8031,4120
Wei Yuan Yang RESEARCH FELLOW
Room 803, IBC, AS

Research

Autophagy, Organelle damage responses, cell imaging, optogenetics.

We develop and apply optogenetic schemes to perform quatitative measurements within single cells. We currently study the two following inter-related processes within the mammalian system:

細胞自噬 (Autophagy)

Cells utilize autophagosomal membranes to engulf cellular materials (from lipids, proteins, metabolites, entire organelles, to intruding pathogens) for autophagic degradation, and defective autophagy is implicated in a wide range diseases (e.g., neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, and aging).

How do cells determine the exact number of autophagosomes that needs to be generated at one time? How do they know precisely when and where autophagosome biogenesis should take place? We investigate questions related to how cells quantitatively tune their autophagosome biogenesis. The answers will provide insights on how autophagy can be utilized for medical interventions.

胞器損傷修復機制 (Organelle damage responses)

Our cells require a healthy pool of organelles to function- they therefore need to respond to organelle damages actively to survive. Gaining insights on how the various organelle damage responses work is attractive to us, as it permits the eventual manipulation of these pathways for extending cellular lifespan. We work toward this goal by combining organelle-specific dyes and targeted illumination to quantitatively elicit organelle dysfunction, and monitor cells’ reactions to this damage. The scheme we use allows one to designate the types of organelles targeted, and also controls the location as well as the extent and degree of the organelle damage that is applied.

Degrees and Positions Held

  • 1997 – 2003   Ph.D., Biophysics and Computational Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • 1993 – 1997   B.S., Physics, National Taiwan University
  • 2022 – present   Research Fellow, Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica
  • 2014 – 2022   Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica
  • 2008 – 2014   Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica
  • 2003 – 2007   Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Chemistry, Harvard University

Selected Publications

A cryo-electron tomography workflow reveals protrusion-mediated shedding on injured plasma membrane. 
Mageswaran SK, Yang WY (corresponding author), Chakrabarty Y, Oikonomou CM, Jensen GJ 
Science Advances (2021)

Hsc70/Stub1 promotes the removal of individual oxidatively stressed peroxisomes. 
Chen BC, Chang YJ, Lin S, and Yang WY 
Nature Communications (2020)

Vesicular transport mediates the uptake of cytoplasmic proteins into mitochondria in Drosophila melanogaster. 
Chen PL, Huang KT, Cheng CY, Li JC, Chan HY, Lin TY, Su MP, Yang WY, Chang HC, Wang HD, and Chen CH 
Nature Communications (2020)

Omegasome-proximal PtdIns(4,5)P2 couples F-actin mediated mitoaggregate disassembly with autophagosome formation during mitophagy. 
Hsieh CW and Yang WY 
Nature Communications (2019)

Triggering mitophagy with photosensitizers. 
Hsieh CW and Yang WY 
Methods in Molecular Biology (2019)

Assays to monitor lysophagy. 
Chu YC, Hung YH, and Yang WY 
Methods in Enzymology (2017)

Bit-by-bit autophagic removal of parkin-labelled mitochondria. 
Yang JY and Yang WY 
Nature Communications (2013)

Spatiotemporally controlled induction of autophagy-mediated lysosome turnover. 
Hung YH, Chen LMW, Yang JY, and Yang WY 
Nature Communications (2013)

Spatiotemporally controlled initiation of Parkin-mediated mitophagy within single cells. 
Yang JY and Yang WY 
Autophagy (2011)

Site-Specific Two-Color Protein Labeling for FRET Studies Using Split Inteins. 
Yang JY and Yang WY 
Journal of the American Chemical Society (2009)

Publication List