Jerry Yang

Born in China and educated Cornell University, Xiangzhong “Jerry” Yang, Ph.D. is one of the foremost animal biotechnologists in the world. Dr. Yang joined the faculty of the University of Connecticut as an associate professor of animal science and head of the Biotechnology Center’s Transgenic Animal Facility in 1996 and was promoted to full professor in 2000. In 2001, he was named founding director of UConn’s new Center for Regenerative Biology, overseeing five new faculty lines investigating basic science in the field of regenerative biology and medicine.

Dr. Yang’s breakthroughs in this burgeoning new scientific field have been exceptional and his preeminence distinguished the new Center was a world renowned research program practically overnight.

His dramatic achievements include:
First scientist in the world to produce male clones from a prize Japanese breeding bull in 1988. First to produce a cloned animal - the famous calf, Amy - from an adult farm animal, at UConn, in 1999. First to report that cloned animals have telomeres of normal length, an important observation, since telomeres function as disposable buffers at the ends of chromosomes, preventing loss of genetic information that is essential to cellular function. First to report abnormal expression of X-linked genes in cloned animals.

His dramatic achievements include:

First scientist in the world to produce male clones from a prize Japanese breeding bull in 1988.
First to produce a cloned animal - the famous calf, Amy - from an adult farm animal, at UConn, in 1999.
First to report that cloned animals have telomeres of normal length, an important observation, since telomeres function as disposable buffers at the ends of chromosomes, preventing loss of genetic information that is essential to cellular function.
First to report abnormal expression of X-linked genes in cloned animals.

Five new faculty members, each a prominent expert, were recruited to staff the Center for Regenerative Biology when it opened. Collectively, they investigate areas of basic science that might lead to therapeutic production of new cell types, tissues or organs as potential replacements for diseased tissues commonly found in such disorders as Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, muscular dystrophy and many kinds of cancer. To the university’s already strong embryo biotechnology program, the new researchers recruited to staff the Center for Regenerative Biology brought expertise in molecular embryology, embryonic and adult stem cell development and characterization, mechanisms of stem cell maintenance and differentiation, gene expression and cell/tissue engineering.