Yang received his BS in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and his PhD in organic chemistry from the University of California, Irvine. Under the supervision of Professor James Nowick, Yang's graduate work focused on elucidating the mechanism of action of teixobactin, an amyloidogenic peptide antibiotic. Yang joined the Condello lab as a postdoctoral scholar. He will be designing, synthesizing, and studying tools that enable identification of toxic prion conformations.