Nan Yang

Nan Yang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her research focuses on understanding neural development, neuroepigenetics, and the application of stem cell technologies to model psychiatric and neurological disorders. She leads the Yang Lab, which investigates cell fate specification, chromatin modifications in psychiatric diseases, and the use of 3D brain organoids for disease modeling. Yang holds a PhD from Fudan University and completed postdoctoral training at Stanford University. She has been recognized with the 2014 NARSAD Young Investigator Award. Her work integrates stem cell biology, CRISPR gene editing, and single-cell sequencing to uncover molecular mechanisms underlying brain disorders. The lab is actively recruiting postdocs and graduate students. Yang’s research is supported by collaborations with the Seaver Autism Center and includes projects on neurodevelopmental disorders, epigenetic regulation, and translational therapies.

Education: Exchange student at University of California, San Francisco; PhD, Fudan University; Postdoctoral training at Stanford University.

Research Interests: Human pluripotent stem cells, neurodevelopmental disorders, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), chromatin modifications, brain organoids, CRISPR-mediated epigenetic editing, single-cell sequencing, and translational neuroscience.

Notable Achievements: Pioneered transcription factor-mediated neuronal reprogramming, developed models for psychiatric disease using iPSCs, and contributed to understanding epigenetic mechanisms in non-coding genetic variants. Current projects include studying synaptic functions in autism and developing high-throughput in vitro systems for disease investigation.

Lab Team: Includes graduate students, postdocs, and research associates focusing on stem cell modeling, neuroepigenetics, and clinical translation. Notable alumni have moved to roles in industry and academia.

Lab Locations: Icahn (East) Building, New York, NY. Contact: nan.yang1@mssm.edu or (212) 659-8288.