Fengtang Yang

Senior Staff Scientist

Alumni

This person is a member of Sanger Institute Alumni.

I have now left the Sanger Institute and am currently working as a consultant in molecular cytogenetics and cytogenomics. To contact me, please email me at: fengtang.yang@gmail.com

I am a molecular cytogeneticist by training but have stayed abreast of the latest developments in the field of molecular biology and genomics throughout my career. I study chromosomes, their structure, inheritance and evolution by fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) - a technique for detecting and locating specific DNA sequences on metaphase chromosome and interphase nuclei - in combination with conventional cytogenetic banding techiques.

Before I moved to the Sanger Institute, my research mainly involved 1) the development of chromosome-specific paint probes by flow sorting and DOP-PCR amplification and 2) the characterisation of major evolutionary chromosomal rearrangements in eutherian mammals and birds by cross-species chromosome painting.

After join the Sanger Institute, my search mainly focused on the high-thoughput and high-resolution mapping of genomic DNA clones (BACs & fosmids) by multicolour FISH in order to assist the assembly of genomic sequences, such as the chromosomal assignment and ordering of sequence contigs, sizing of gaps and overlaps in genome assemblies, validation of structural and copy number variations, mapping of mouse transgenes, characterisation of chromosomal structural and numerical aberrations in cancer cell lines and in mouse models of human tumours, karyotyping of ESC ad iPSC lines from human and mouse etc.

My timeline

• Started my life in the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

• Senior research associate in the Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge

• Took up a concurrent appointment as as a research professor in Kunming Institute of Zoology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

• Research associate in the Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge

• Received my Ph.D. degree from Trinity College, University of Cambridge

• Entered Trinity College, University of Cambridge as a Ph.D. student. Started the karyotype evolution study of animals by flow sorting and cross-species painting.

• Arrived in the UK as a visiting scholar; boarded the "FISHing" boat for the first time.

• M.Sc. from Kunming Institute of Zoology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

• B.Sc. from Hebei Normal University, China