MEET OUR TEAM
Peixin yang, Phd
Academic Title: Professor, Principal Investigator
Peixin obtained his bachelor’s degree in animal science at Zhejiang Agricultural University before getting his master’s degree studying animal reproductive sciences at Nanjing Agricultural University. He started his postdoc as a research associate at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and when he came to the University of Maryland School of Medicine, he started on his track towards becoming a professor. Nowadays, outside of being a tenured professor and the principal investigator for the lab, Peixin also serves as the vice chair for the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at UMB.
Wei-Bin Shen, PhD
Academic Title: Research Associate
Wei-Bin finished his bachelor’s in biology at Hangzhou University, his master’s in reproductive physiology at the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his PhD in neuroendocrinology at the State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Wei-Bin’s research focuses on stem cell therapy on neural tube defects, congenital heart defects and neurodegenerative diseases, and intracellular signaling pathways that lead the birth defects. His experience arises from his background in stem cell research, embryonic brain development, molecular neuroscience, cell differentiation, and stem cell transplantation surgery in animal models.
Cheng Xu, PhD
Academic Title: Research Associate
Cheng studied marine biology in China, earning his PhD at the Institute of Oceanology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In the Yang lab, his research focuses on the mechanisms underlying maternal diabetes-induced neural tube defects. In particular, he has discovered that suppressed autophagy and delayed neurogenesis induced by maternal diabetes can be treated with trehalose, an autophagy inducer. He also revealed a function for PGC-1α in embryonic development through promoting autophagy and ameliorating hyperglycaemia-induced neural tube defects, demonstrating that PKCα increases the expression of miR-129-2 — a negative regulator of autophagy. Cheng’s research contributions go far beyond these few examples, and his work on epigenetics is helping the world understand the mechanisms and elucidate the hidden causes underlying diabetic embryopathy.
Shengbing Wang, PhD
Academic Title: Research Associate
Shengbing is one of the research associates dedicated to furthering the research performed in the Yang lab.
Xuguang Nie, PhD
Academic Title: Research Associate
Xuguang graduated from a leading medical school in China and obtained his PhD degree from the University of Bergen of Norway. He has over 30 years of outstanding experience in top-tier universities around the world, including Mount Sinai medical school, Johns Hopkins University, and Columbia University. His research focuses on organogenesis and developmental disorders. Currently, he is working on the genetic basis of heart development and defects.
Penghua Yang, PhD
Academic Title: Research Associate
Penghua completed both his undergraduate and graduate studies at the Agricultural University of Hebei before he began studying Biochemistry at China Agricultural University for his PhD. Since then, he has completed his post doctorate studies at the University of Missouri, Columbia and University of Maryland, Baltimore, and he now focuses his research on the effects of epigenetic modification (including DNA methylation, RNA methylation and protein phosphorylation) on neural tube defects of embryos induced by maternal diabetes. Additionally, he is interested in differentiating embryonic stem cells to neural lineage cells or cardiac lineage cells and raising these cells in high glucose environments to mimic maternal diabetes conditions.
Wenhui Lu, PhD
Academic Title: Post Doc Fellow
Wenhui obtained her PhD in pathology and pathophysiology from Jinan University. In the lab, she currently is working on a project studying mitochondrial dysfunction involved heart defects in mice embryos with maternal diabetes. She works with specific miRNAs and lncRNAs which may potentially be linked to congenital heart defects such as ventricular septal defect and persistent truncus arteriosis. In addition, she is investigating how mitochondrial dynamics change under hyperglycemia.
Hua Li
Academic Title: Senior Technician
Hua received her bachelors studying law in China. As the technician for the lab, she assists researchers throughout their endeavors by helping them with tasks such as preparing solutions.
Deborah Watts
Academic Title: Administrative Assistant
Debbie joined the University of Maryland School of Medicine in June of 2018 after retiring from the state government in 2015 with 37 ½ years of service. As the Administrative Assistant in Dr. Yang's lab, she helps with grant submissions, expense tracking, and general administrative duties. Furthermore, she is also the Co-Editor of the OBGYN Research Newsletter. She first worked on campus over 36 years ago and enjoys being back and seeing the changes.