Xiao YANG

Professor Xiao YANG

BSc.(Hons), PhD
Assistant Professor,
Department of Microbiology,
Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Professor Xiao YANG

xiaoyang@cuhk.edu.hk

Research

ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3071-6531

Research interest
Discovery and development of first-in-class antimicrobial agents
AI-based drug design and discovery
Bacterial transcriptional regulation
Awards
2023Passion for Perfection Scheme, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
2023Winner, Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the Year Award in the Category of Science Start-ups, Falling Wall Venture, Berlin, Germany
2019TechConnect Global Innovation Award, TechConnect World Conference and Expo, USA
2018Faculty Innovation Award, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
2014Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Research Excellence, The University of Newcastle, Australia
2011Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship (APD), Australian Research Council
2009Outstanding achievement PhD award, The University of Newcastle, Australia
2009Becton-Dickinson (BD) Student Award, Australian Society of Microbiology
2006Australian Postgraduate Award (APA), Australian Research Council
2005University Medal, The University of Newcastle, Australia
Postgraduate students
Information for Postgraduate Study in Department of Microbiology
Our Team
Staff
Student
External Competitive Grants

Total number of external competitive grants as the lead applicant: 16

Total amount of external competitive grants as the lead applicant: $32,795,593 HKD

PI, Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities Plus (TSSSU+), Ynno Med Limited. $900,000 HKD, 2025-2026.
PI, Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF), “Antimicrobial Activity of Novel Small Molecule Antimicrobial Agents Targeting Bacterial Transcription Initiation against Clinical MRSA Strains from Blood Specimens at the Prince of Wales Hospital”, $1,298,688 HKD, 2025-2028.
PI, General Research Fund (GRF), “Advancing Antimicrobial Therapies: Discovery and Characterization of Bacterial Transcription Inhibitors”, $1,548,663 HKD, 2025-2027.
PI, Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF), “Evaluation of Chemical Inhibitors Targeting the Interaction between Bacterial RNA Polymerase and Transcription Factor NusA as Novel Antimicrobial Agents against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)”, $ 1,198,728 HKD, 2022-2024.
Incu-Bio Programme, Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission, “Small molecule first-in- class antibiotic drug candidates”, $6,000,000 HKD, 2023-2027
PI, Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities (TSSSU-O), Ynno Med Limited. $190,000 HKD, 2024-2025.
PI, Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities (TSSSU-O), Ynno Med Limited. $500,000 HKD, 2023-2024.
PI, General Research Fund (GRF), “Discovering bacterial transcription inhibitors as novel antimicrobial agents”, $1,179,235 HKD, 2023-2025.
PI, Midstream Research Programme for Universities (MRP), “Development of first-in-class antimicrobial agents with novel mode of action towards antibiotic drug candidates”, Innovation and Technology Commission, $5.1M HKD, 2022-2024.
PI, Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities (TSSSU), Ynno Med Limited. $600,000 HKD, 2022-2023.
PI, Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF), “Antimicrobial activities of the Novel Bacterial Transcription Inhibitor against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)”, Food and Health Bureau, $1,198,728 HKD, 2021-2023.
PI, General Research Fund (GRF), “Activity evaluation and mechanistic studies of nusbiarylins, bacterial ribosomal RNA synthesis inhibitors as novel antimicrobial agents”, Research Grants Council, $996,285 HKD, 2021-2023.
Co-PI, Collaborative Research Fund (CRF), “Study of Inhibitors Targeting Bacterial RNA Polymerase Holoenzyme Formation as Novel Antimicrobial Agents”, Research Grants Council, $4,974,462 HKD, 2020-2023.
Co-PI, ANR/RGC Joint Research Scheme, “Design, Development of New Synthetic Strategies and Evaluation of Antimicrobial N-heterocycles”, Research Grants Council, $ 2,968,143 HKD, 2022-2026.
PI, Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF), “The Effects of Novel Synthetic Antimicrobial Agents on the Pathogenicity of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)”, Food and Health Bureau, $1,184,736 HKD, 2020-2022.
PI, General Research Fund (GRF), “Evaluation and mechanistic characterization of bacterial transcription initiation inhibitors as novel antimicrobial agents”, Research Grants Council, $830,136 HKD, 2020-2022.
PI, Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF), “Development and Evaluation of Novel Synthetic Bacterial Ribosomal RNA Transcription Inhibitors as Antimicrobials against Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)”, Food and Health Bureau, $1,180,400 HKD, 2018-2020.
PI, General Research Fund (GRF), “Structure Determination of Bacterial Transcription Complex for Antimicrobial Development”, Research Grants Council, $947,389 HKD, 2018-2020.
Patents
Compounds with antimicrobial activities. US provisional application No. 62/615,418 on 9th Jan 2018; WIPO: WO2019138323A1 (Refer to Application No. PCT/IB2019/050137); US: Patent No. 11,479,529 (Refer to non-provisional application No. 16/959,142) granted on 25th Oct 2022 (valid until 8th Jan 2039); China: Patent No. ZL201980007063.0 (Refer to national stage application No. CN111971271A) granted on 10th Oct 2023 (valid until 8th Jan 2039); Europe: EP3737664A4; Japan: JP2021510143A).
N-Substituted Oseltamivir Derivatives with Antimicrobial Activity. US Provisional Patent Application No. 62/865,347; PCT/CN2020/097602. Filed on 23/06/2020.
Antimicrobial compounds and methods of use thereof. PCT Patent Application No. PCT/CN2024/115693; Filed on 30 August 2024.
Antibacterial compounds and methods of use thereof. US Provisional Patent Application No: 63/654,205. Filed on 31 May 2024.
Antibacterial compounds and methods of use thereof. US Provisional Patent Application No: 63/745,362. Filed on 15 Jan 2025.
Publications (Representative*) *equal contribution

  1. Zheng Y, Kan CH, Tsang TF, Liu Y, Liu T, Tsang MW, Lam LY, Yang X, Ma C.. Discovery of Inhibitors Targeting Protein–Protein Interaction between Bacterial RNA Polymerase and NusG as Novel Antimicrobials. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 2024; 67(18):16556–75. Supplementary cover article.
  2. Ye J, Chu AJ, Harper R, Chan ST, Shek TL, Zhang Y, Ip M, Sambir M, Artsimovitch I, Zuo Z, Yang X*, Ma C*. Discovery of Antibacterials that Inhibit Bacterial RNA Polymerase Interactions with Sigma Factors. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2020; 63(14): 7695-7720. supplementary cover article.
  3. Qiu Y, Chan ST, Lin L, Shek TL, Tsang TF, Barua N, Zhang Y, Ip M, Chan PK, Blanchard N, Hanquet G, Zuo Z*, Yang X*, Ma C*. Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of antimicrobial diarylimine and -amine compounds targeting the interaction between the bacterial NusB and NusE proteins. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. 2019; 178:214-231.
  4. Tsang TF, Qiu Y, Lin L, Ye JQ, Ma C*, Yang X*. A simple method for studying in vitro protein-protein interactions based on luciferase complementation and its application in drug screening targeting bacterial transcription. ACS Infectious Diseases. 2019; 5(4):521-527. supplementary cover paper.
  5. Yang X, Luo MJ, Yeung ACM, Lewis PJ, Chan PKS, Ip M, Ma C. First-In-Class Inhibitor of Ribosomal RNA Synthesis with Antimicrobial Activity against Staphylococcus aureus. Biochemistry. 2017.
  6. Ma C, Yang X, Lewis PJ. Bacterial Transcription Inhibitor of RNA Polymerase Holoenzyme Formation by Structure-Based Drug Design: From in Silico Screening to Validation. ACS Infectious Disease 2016; 2(1): 39-46.
  7. Ma C, Yang X, Lewis PJ. Bacterial transcription as a target for antibacterial drug development. Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews 2016; 80(1): 139-160.
  8. Ma C*, Mobli M*, Yang X*, Keller AN, King G, Lewis PJ. The Mechanism of Transcription Pause Enhancement By NusA. Nucleic Acid Research 2015; 43(5): 2829-2840.
  9. Keller AN, Yang X, Wiedermannová J, Delumeau O, Krásný L, Lewis PJ. ε, a New Subunit of RNA Polymerase Found in Gram-Positive Bacteria. Journal of Bacteriology 2014; 196: 3622-3632.
  10. Yang X, Molimau S, Doherty GP, Johnston EB, Marles-Wright J, Rothnagel R, Hankamer B, Lewis RJ, Lewis PJ. The structure of bacterial RNA polymerase in complex with the essential transcription elongation factor NusA. EMBO Reports 2009; 10: 997-1002.

Knowledge transfer activities and partnership with industry
Patent application granted. One of our PCT patents (WO/2019/138323) has been granted in the USA, China, Europe, and Japan. Two other patents have been filed (WO/2020/001321, WO/2020/259471) and are undergoing national examination.
Establishment of a start-up biotech company (2021). Together with external co- Founders, we have established a university spin-off start-up company named “Ynno Med Ltd” in 2021.

Link: www.ynnomed.com

Successfully receiving TSSSU (2022). Ynno Med successfully received HK$ 1.29M from the Hong Kong SAR government’s Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities (TSSSU) for a three-year period.
Successful admission to the HKSTP IncuBio programme (2023). Ynno Med Ltd was admitted to the Hong Kong Science & Technology Park (HKSTP) IncuBio programme in 2023, receiving HK$ 4M over four years for technology development, plus an additional HK$ 2M for clinical trial applications, aiding the transition from research to drug development.
Licensing agreement signed with CUHK and PolyU (2024). The licensing agreement of the patents to Ynno Med has been signed with the universities in 2024. The products developed from the licensed IP will generate upfront, milestone, and royalty payments to CU and PolyU.
Industrial partnership settled with SPH (2024). SPH is a listed Fortune-500 and top-50 pharmaceutical company worldwide. SPH became an industrial partner of Ynno Med with an option agreement signed in 2024. They will provide support on funding, technical assistance for preclinical and clinical trials, consultancy of experts, and regulatory affairs. SPH subsequently incorporated Ynno Med into their incubation programme in HKSTP to progress in the track of novel antibiotic development.
Research collaboration with Jiying Technology Co. Ltd. $4.5 M for the development of novel antibiotics, three years 2024-2027, the first instalment of $1.5 M HKD was received in Oct/2024.
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