Professor Wanling Yang (楊萬嶺)

M. Medicine (China), Ph.D. Pharmacology and Bioinformatics (Minnesota)

 

Professor
Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine,

School of Clinical Medicine, The University of Hong Kong

 

Specialty

Genetics, genomics and Bioinformatics

 

Awards

Faculty Outstanding Research Output Award， 2017， School of Clinical Medicine, HKU

 

 

Contact

Email:

Tel:

Fax:
Office:


Mailing:

yangwl@hku.hk
(852) 28315077
(852) 28198142
Department of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
Office 5, 1/F, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Building for Interdisciplinary Research, 5 Sassoon Road, Hong Kong
L7-55 Paediatrics, Lab Block, Faculty of Medicine, 21 Sassoon Road, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
 
Yang Lab webpage (https://paed.hku.hk/genome/)
 
Google Scholar ID
(https://scholar.google.com.hk/citations?user=ScHrUm2HuAQC&hl=en)

 

 

Research

 

Research areas

 

Genomics is rapidly becoming a driving force of biomedical research and will have a significant impact on personalized medicine and clinical diagnosis. Making sense of the large data in biology is challenging and they require multidisciplinary approaches from genetics, molecular biology, statistics and bioinformatics. My laboratory is interested in identifying susceptibility genes for systemic lupus erythematosus by in-depth analysis of GWAS data and finding causal mutations for single gene disorders using next generation sequencing. We are also interested in developing tools for a better understanding of genetic and genomic data and to make genotype-phenotype correlations.

  1. Genetic studies on Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE):
    One of our research interests is on the genetic susceptibility of SLE, a prototype autoimmune disease that is more prevalent in East Asians. We have the largest collection of SLE cohorts in this region and have been actively involved in identifying SLE susceptibility genes using genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We are also making effort to move beyond genetics, trying to better understand the genetic associations in the context of gene expression, DNA methylation, eQTL, transcription factor (TF) binding, histone modification, and other relevant information available. Functional characterization of the identified SLE susceptibility loci is also underway.
  2. Molecular diagnosis for Mendelian diseases:
    Rapid advances in DNA sequencing have greatly improved molecular diagnosis for Mendelian disorders. However, the success rate even for whole genome sequencing approaches is still less than 50% for most Mendelian diseases. We aim to improve the sequencing platforms and analysis algorithms to improve the sensitivity of diagnosis of Mendelian disorders. We believe that much improved sensitivity and specificity in causal mutation detection will also move us closer to carrier screening that could significantly reduce the prevalence of genetic disorders.
  3. Bioinformatics and Genomics
    Advances in technology have revolutionized the way we do biology. Analysis of big data has become an essential component of biomedical research. One of the areas we are interested in is to better analyze genetic, genomic and other omics data to help answer fundamental biological questions.

 

 

Education

Courses:

 

CCST9025: Genetics and Human Nature

CCST9064: The World Changed by DNA

BBMS3009: Genome Science

BBMS2003: Human Genetics

 

Selected publications

Full publication list (http://wyanglab.org/publication.html)

 

Genetic Studies on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE)

  1. Yang W, Zhao M, Hirankarn N, Lau CS, Mok CC, Chan TM, Wong RW, Lee KW, Mok MY, Wong SN, Avihingsanon Y, Lin IO, Lee TL, Ho MH, Lee PP, Wong WH, Sham PC, Lau YL. ITGAM is associated with disease susceptibility and renal nephritis of systemic lupus erythematosus in Hong Kong Chinese and Thai. Hum Mol Genet. 2009 Jun 1;18(11):2063-70. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddp118. Epub 2009 Mar 13. PubMed PMID: 19286673; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2678927.
  2. Yang W, Shen N, Ye DQ, Liu Q, Zhang Y, Qian XX, Hirankarn N, Ying D, Pan HF,  Mok CC, Chan TM, Wong RW, Lee KW, Mok MY, Wong SN, Leung AM, Li XP, Avihingsanon Y, Wong CM, Lee TL, Ho MH, Lee PP, Chang YK, Li PH, Li RJ, Zhang L, Wong WH, Ng IO, Lau CS, Sham PC, Lau YL; Asian Lupus Genetics Consortium. Genome-wide association study in Asian populations identifies variants in ETS1 and WDFY4 associated with systemic lupus erythematosus. PLoS Genet. 2010 Feb 12;6(2):e1000841. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000841. PubMed PMID: 20169177; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2820522.
  3. Yang W, Tang H, Zhang Y, Tang X, Zhang J, Sun L, Yang J, Cui Y, Zhang L, Hirankarn N, Cheng H, Pan HF, Gao J, Lee TL, Sheng Y, Lau CS, Li Y, Chan TM, Yin  X, Ying D, Lu Q, Leung AM, Zuo X, Chen X, Tong KL, Zhou F, Diao Q, Tse NK, Xie H, Mok CC, Hao F, Wong SN, Shi B, Lee KW, Hui Y, Ho MH, Liang B, Lee PP, Cui H, Guo  Q, Chung BH, Pu X, Liu Q, Zhang X, Zhang C, Chong CY, Fang H, Wong RW, Sun Y, Mok MY, Li XP, Avihingsanon Y, Zhai Z, Rianthavorn P, Deekajorndej T, Suphapeetiporn  K, Gao F, Shotelersuk V, Kang X, Ying SK, Zhang L, Wong WH, Zhu D, Fung SK, Zeng F, Lai WM, Wong CM, Ng IO, Garcia-Barceló MM, Cherny SS, Shen N, Tam PK, Sham PC, Ye DQ, Yang S, Zhang X, Lau YL. Meta-analysis followed by replication identifies loci in or near CDKN1B, TET3, CD80, DRAM1, and ARID5B as associated with systemic lupus erythematosus in Asians. Am J Hum Genet. 2013 Jan 10;92(1):41-51. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2012.11.018. Epub 2012 Dec 27. PubMed PMID: 23273568; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3542470.
  4. Zhang J, Zhang Y, Zhang L, Yang J, Ying D, Zeng S, Lee TL, Lau CS, Chan TM, Leung AM, Mok CC, Wong SN, Lee KW, Ho MH, Lee PP, Chung BH, Chong CY, Wong RW, Mok MY, Wong WH, Lau YL, *Yang W. Epistatic interaction between genetic variants in susceptibility gene ETS1 correlates with IL-17 levels in SLE patients. Ann Hum Genet. 2013 Jul;77(4):344-50. doi: 10.1111/ahg.12018. Epub 2013 Apr 24. PubMed PMID: 23614478.
  5. Zhang J, Zhang Y, Yang J, Zhang L, Sun L, Pan HF, Hirankarn N, Ying D, Zeng S, Lee TL, Lau CS, Chan TM, Leung AM, Mok CC, Wong SN, Lee KW, Ho MH, Lee PP, Chung BH, Chong CY, Wong RW, Mok MY, Wong WH, Tong KL, Tse NK, Li XP, Avihingsanon Y, Rianthavorn P, Deekajorndej T, Suphapeetiporn K, Shotelersuk V, Ying SK, Fung SK, Lai WM, Garcia-Barceló MM, Cherny SS, Tam PK, Cui Y, Sham PC, Yang S, Ye DQ, Zhang XJ, Lau YL, *Yang W. Three SNPs in chromosome 11q23.3 are independently associated with systemic lupus erythematosus in Asians. Hum Mol Genet. 2014 Jan 15;23(2):524-33. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddt424. Epub 2013 Sep 2. PubMed PMID: 24001599.
  6. Zhang Y, Zhang J, Yang J, Wang Y, Zhang L, Zuo X, Sun L, Pan HF, Hirankarn N, Wang T, Chen R, Ying D, Zeng S, Shen JJ, Lee TL, Lau CS, Chan TM, Leung AM, Mok CC, Wong SN, Lee KW, Ho MH, Lee PP, Chung BH, Chong CY, Wong RW, Mok MY, Wong WH, Tong KL, Tse NK, Li XP, Avihingsanon Y, Rianthavorn P, Deekajorndej T, Suphapeetiporn K, Shotelersuk V, Ying SK, Fung SK, Lai WM, Wong CM, Ng IO, Garcia-Barcelo MM, Cherny SS, Tam PK, Sham PC, Yang S, Ye DQ, Cui Y, Zhang XJ, Lau YL, *Yang W. Meta-analysis of GWAS on two Chinese populations followed by replication identifies novel genetic variants on the X chromosome associated with systemic lupus erythematosus. Hum Mol Genet. 2015 Jan 1;24(1):274-84. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddu429. Epub 2014 Aug 22. PubMed PMID: 25149475.
  7. *Yang W, *Lau YL. Solving the genetic puzzle of systemic lupus erythematosus. Pediatr Nephrol. 2015 Oct;30(10):1735-48. doi: 10.1007/s00467-014-2947-8. Epub 2014 Sep 20. Review. PubMed PMID: 25239301.
  8. Zhang Y, Yang J, Zhang J, Sun L, Hirankarn N, Pan HF, Lau CS, Chan TM, Lee TL, Leung AM, Mok CC, Zhang L, Wang Y, Shen JJ, Wong SN, Lee KW, Ho MH, Lee PP, Chung BH, Chong CY, Wong RW, Mok MY, Wong WH, Tong KL, Tse NK, Li XP, Avihingsanon Y, Rianthavorn P, Deekajorndej T, Suphapeetiporn K, Shotelersuk V, Ying SK, Fung SK, Lai WM, Wong CM, Ng IO, Garcia-Barcelo MM, Cherny SS, Cui Y, Sham PC, Yang S, Ye DQ, Zhang XJ, Lau YL, *Yang W. Genome-wide search followed by replication reveals genetic interaction of CD80 and ALOX5AP associated with systemic lupus erythematosus in Asian populations. Ann Rheum Dis. 2016 May;75(5):891-8. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-206367. Epub 2015 Apr 10. PubMed PMID: 25862617.
  9. Zhang J, Zhang L, Zhang Y, Yang J, Guo M, Sun L, Pan HF, Hirankarn N, Ying D, Zeng S, Lee TL, Lau CS, Chan TM, Leung AM, Mok CC, Wong SN, Lee KW, Ho MH, Lee PP, Chung BH, Chong CY, Wong RW, Mok MY, Wong WH, Tong KL, Tse NK, Li XP, Avihingsanon Y, Rianthavorn P, Deekajorndej T, Suphapeetiporn K, Shotelersuk V, Ying SK, Fung SK, Lai WM, Garcia-Barceló MM, Cherny SS, Sham PC, Cui Y, Yang S, Ye DQ, Zhang XJ, *Lau YL, *Yang W. Gene-based meta-analysis of genome-wide association study data identifies independent single-nucleotide polymorphisms in ANXA6 as being associated with systemic lupus erythematosus in Asian populations. Arthritis & Rheumatol. 2015 Nov;67(11):2966-77. doi: 10.1002/art.39275. PubMed PMID: 26202167.
  10. Morris DL, Sheng Y, Zhang Y, Wang YF, Zhu Z, Tombleson P, Chen L, Cunninghame Graham DS, Bentham J, Roberts AL, Chen R, Zuo X, Wang T, Wen L, Yang C, Liu L, Yang L, Li F, Huang Y, Yin X, Yang S, Rönnblom L, Fürnrohr BG, Voll RE, Schett G, Costedoat-Chalumeau N, Gaffney PM, Lau YL, Zhang X, *Yang W, *Cui Y, *Vyse TJ. Genome-wide association meta-analysis in Chinese and European individuals identifies ten new loci associated with systemic lupus erythematosus. Nat Genet.  2016 Aug;48(8):940-946. doi: 10.1038/ng.3603. Epub 2016 Jul 11. PubMed PMID: 27399966; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4966635.
  11. Wang YF, Zhang Y, Zhu Z, Wang TY, Morris DL, Shen JJ, Zhang H, Pan HF, Yang J, Yang S, Ye DQ, Vyse TJ, Cui Y, Zhang X, Sheng Y, Lau YL, *Yang W. Identification of ST3AGL4, MFHAS1, CSNK2A2 and CD226 as loci associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and evaluation of SLE genetics in drug repositioning. Ann Rheum Dis. 2018 Jul;77(7):1078-1084. doi: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2018-213093. Epub 2018 Apr 6. PubMed PMID: 29625966.
  12. Wang YF, Lau YL, *Yang W. Genetic studies on systemic lupus erythematosus in East Asia point to population differences in disease susceptibility. Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet. 2019 Jun;181(2):262-268. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.c.31696. Epub 2019 Mar 21. PubMed PMID: 30897304.
  13. Wang YF, Zhang Y, Lin Z, Zhang H, Wang TY, Cao Y, Morris DL, Sheng Y, Yin X, Zhong SL, Gu X, Lei Y, He J, Wu Q, Shen JJ, Yang J, Lam TH, Lin JH, Mai ZM, Guo M, Tang Y, Chen Y, Song Q, Ban B, Mok CC, Cui Y, Lu L, Shen N, Sham PC, Lau CS, Smith DK, Vyse TJ, Zhang X, *Lau YL, *Yang W. Identification of 38 novel loci for systemic lupus erythematosus and genetic heterogeneity between ancestral groups. Nat Commun. 2021 Feb 3;12(1):772. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-21049-y. PMID: 33536424; PMCID: PMC7858632.
  14. Song Q, Lei Y, Shao L, Li W, Kong Q, Lin Z, Qin X, Wei W, Hou F, Li J, Guo X, Mao Y, Cao Y, Liu Z, Zheng L, Liang R, Jiang Y, Liu Y, Zhang L, Yang J, Lau YL, Zhang Y, Ban B, Wang YF, *Yang W. Genome-wide association study on Northern Chinese identifies KLF2, DOT1L and STAB2 associated with systemic lupus erythematosus. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2021 Jan 25:keab016. doi:10.1093/rheumatology/keab016. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33493351.
  15. YF Wang, W Wei, P Tangtanatakul, L Zheng, L Yao, Z Lin, C Qian, X Qin, F Hou, X Zhang, L Shao, N Satproedprai, S Mahasirimongkol, P Pisitkun, Q Song, YL Lau, *Y Zhang,*N Hirankarn,*Wanling Yang, Multi-ancestral GWAS identifies both shared and Asian-specific loci for SLE and links type III interferon signaling and lysosomal function to SLE, Arthritis Rheumatol. (in press)

 

Genomic data analysis and bioinformatics

  1. Yang W, Ying D, Lau YL. In-depth cDNA library sequencing provides quantitative gene expression profiling in cancer biomarker discovery. Genomics Proteomics Bioinformatics. 2009 Jun;7(1-2):1-12. doi: 10.1016/S1672-0229(09)00003-5. PubMed PMID: 19591787; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5054226.
  2. Zhang L, #*Yang W, Ying D, Cherny SS, Hildebrandt F, Sham PC, Lau YL. Homozygosity mapping on a single patient: identification of homozygous regions of recent common ancestry by using population data. Hum Mutat. 2011 Mar;32(3):345-53. doi: 10.1002/humu.21432. PubMed PMID: 21309031; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3357498.
  3. Zhang L, Zhang J, Yang J, Ying D, Lau YL, *Yang W. PriVar: a toolkit for prioritizing SNVs and indels from next-generation sequencing data. Bioinformatics. 2013 Jan 1;29(1):124-5. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/bts627. Epub 2012 Oct 25. PubMed PMID: 23104884.
  4. Huang Y, Yang J, Ying D, Zhang Y, Shotelersuk V, Hirankarn N, Sham PC, Lau YL, *Yang W. HLAreporter: a tool for HLA typing from next generation sequencing data. Genome Med. 2015 Mar 16;7(1):25. doi: 10.1186/s13073-015-0145-3. eCollection 2015. PubMed PMID: 25908942; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4407542.
  5. Ying D, Sham PC, Smith DK, Zhang L, Lau YL, *Yang W. HaploShare: identification of extended haplotypes shared by cases and evaluation against controls. Genome Biol. 2015 May 9;16:92. doi: 10.1186/s13059-015-0662-9. PubMed PMID: 25956955; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4432975.
  6. Chen R, Lau YL, Zhang Y, *Yang W. SRinversion: a tool for detecting short inversions by splitting and re-aligning poorly mapped and unmapped sequencing reads. Bioinformatics. 2016 Dec 1;32(23):3559-3565. Epub 2016 Aug 8. PubMed PMID: 27503227.
  7. Shen JJ, Wang TY, *Yang W. Regulatory and evolutionary signatures of sex-biased genes on both the X chromosome and the autosomes. Biol Sex Differ. 2017 Nov 2;8(1):35. doi: 10.1186/s13293-017-0156-4. PubMed PMID: 29096703; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5668987.
  8. Shen JJ, Yang C, Wang YF, Wang TY, Guo M, Lau YL, Zhang X, *Sheng Y， *Yang W. HLA-IMPUTER: an easy to use web application for HLA imputation and association analysis using population-specific reference panels. Bioinformatics. 2019 Apr 1;35(7):1244-1246.
  9. Shen JJ, Wang YF, *Yang W. Sex-Interacting mRNA- and miRNA-eQTLs and Their Implications in Gene Expression Regulation and Disease. Front Genet. 2019 Apr 9;10:313. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2019.00313. eCollection 2019. PubMed PMID: 31024623; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6465513.
  10. Wang TY, Wang YF, Zhang Y, Shen JJ, Guo M, Yang J, Lau YL, *Yang W. Identification of Regulatory Modules That Stratify Lupus Disease Mechanism through Integrating Multi-Omics Data. Mol Ther Nucleic Acids. 2019 Nov 27;19:318-329.