Education
  • Ph.D.     Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, advisor Peter Andolfatto, 2014 - present
  • B.S.       School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, CHINA, 2010-2014
Undergraduate Research Experiences 
  • Research Assistant University of Toronto, 2013
          Department of Molecular Genetics, Advisor: Charlie Boone
          Research area: functional genomics; yeast
  • ​Research Assistant University of Okayama, 2013
          Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Advisor: Jinglong Wu
          Research area: fMRI data analysis, Alzheimer's disease
Publications
  • Yang L, Aardema ML, Zhen Y, Ding J, Andolfatto P. The evolution of Na+,K+-ATPase in relation to predatory feeding and bufodienolides sequestration in fireflies. (in prep.)
  • Yang L, Ding J, R N, Deshmukh R, Kunte K, Picker M, Andolfatto P. Predictable evolution of Orthopteran cardenolide insensitivity. (in prep.)
  • Van Leeuwen, J. et al. Exploring genetic suppression interactions on a global scale.Science 354, (2016)
  • Yang L, Yang J, Nakamura N, Wu J. Difference of audiovisual integration between Alzheimer’s Disease Patients and Age-matched Healthy Controls: An fMRI Study. In Proceedings of 2013 International Conference on Complex Medical Engineering, May 25-28, 2013, Beijing, China, 19-24.
Presentations
  • (Invited talk) "Predictable evolution of toxin resistance in insects and vertebrates." University of Gissen, Germany, 2017
  • “Potential mechanisms of toxin insensitivity in firefly femme fatale." Princeton-Penn-Rutgers-Columbia conference in evolution (PPRC), Columbia University, New York, NY, 2017
  • “The evolution of Na+,K+-ATPase in relation to predatory feeding and lucibufagins sequestration in fireflies”. International Firefly Symposium, Taipei City, Taiwan, 2017
  • “An fMRI Study of audiovisual integration issues in Alzheimer’s Disease”. ICME International Conference on Complex Medical Engineering, Beijing, China, 2013
Posters
  • “The evolution of Na+,K+-ATPase in relation to predatory feeding and lucibufagins sequestration in fireflies”. SMBE, Austin, TX, 2017
  • “The evolution of Na+,K+-ATPase in relation to predatory feeding and lucibufagins sequestration in fireflies”. Princeton Research Day, Princeton University​, 2017
  • “Predictable evolution of Orthopteran cardenolide insensitivity”. Evolution in Philadelphia Conference, University of Pennsylvania, 2017
  • ​“Construction of Yeast Strains to be Screened for Bypass Suppressors of Essential Genes”. Research Oriented Elite Program Symposium, Beijing, China, 2013
Awards
  • Professional Development Travel Funds, Princeton University, 2018
  • Travel awards, the American Society of Naturalists, 2018
  • Travel award, International Firefly Symposium, 2017
  • First Year Seed Grant, EEB, Princeton University, 2015
  • Scholarship of Research-Oriented Elite Program, Peking University, 2013
  • “Best Wiki” prize, International Genetically Engineering Machine Competition, MIT, 2012
  • Award for academic excellence, Peking University, 2011, 2012
  • Scholarship for honored freshmen, Peking University, 2010
Teaching Experiences
  • EEB 311A Animal Behavior, Princeton University. Prof. James Gould. 2015 & 2017
  • EEB 309 Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University. Prof. Bridgett vonHoldt. 2016 & 2017
  • Biochemistry Topics Discussion, Peking University. Prof. Zengyi Chang, Prof. Wensheng Wei, 2012
Student Mentoring
  • ​Neha Chauhan, freshman at Princeton University, 2018
  • Karen Zhang, Sophomore at Princeton University, “Parallel evolution of cardenolide resistance in amphibians and reptiles”, 2017
  • Marian Wu, Senior at EEB, Princeton University, Honors Thesis Research, “Adaptive gene expression regulation in milkweed bugs”, 2016-2017
  • Regina Visconti, Freshman at Tampa University, Princeton Biophysics REU program, “The chemistry of cardenolides and bufodenolides sequestered by plants and animals”, 2016
  • Adam Rosenstein, Senior at EEB, Princeton University, Senior Thesis Research, “Parallel evolution of cardenolide resistance across insect orders”, 2015-2016​
Skills
  • Wet DNA/ RNA extraction, DNA/RNA library preparation, PCR, qPCR, cloning, CRISPR injection, biochemistry assay, HPLC, experiences with rats, flies, and yeast
  • Dry de novo assembly of genome and transcriptome, differential expression analysis, mapping, phylogenetic analysis, protein structural modeling, Linux, Unix, R, python
  • Communication excellent negotiating skills, scientific writing, popular science freelancer, former graphic designer, photographer, and filmmaker
  • Personality optimistic under stress, curious, persistent
Outreach
  • Main organizer of the student conference of Princeton-Penn-Rutgers-Columbia in Evolution, 2015-2018
  • Host of personal popular science channel (popsci articles and short videos)
  • Session chair of Princeton Research Day, 2017
  • Judge for Hopewell Elementary Science Fair, 2017