Trainee Update: Shuang Yang
Aug. 17, 2023
Dr. Shuang Yang is a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, under the guidance of Dr. Xinxin Ding and Dr. Qing-Yu Zhang.
Prior to joining the University of Arizona, her research focused on xenobiotics, including drug discovery, research, and development for the treatment of diseases. In her previous work, she primarily studied the fate of drugs in the body, encompassing their absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion. In addition to small molecule drugs, Shuang's research also centered on active polysaccharides.
Shuang is of the view that understanding how xenobiotics contribute to human diseases is critical to their prevention and treatment. Given her interest in the impact of environmental pollution on human health, her current research focuses on the effect of chronic arsenic exposure in mice.
Inorganic arsenic is highly toxic and naturally present in the groundwater of some countries, and exposure to it is associated with increased risks for multiple health lesions. Shuang is working with a mouse model to study the in vivo effects of arsenic exposure in mice, including the induction of diabetes and lung cancer and the identification of underlying molecular mechanisms. The results of this research could be beneficial in understanding the hazards of inorganic arsenic to health more comprehensively and have an impact on the prevention and individualized treatment of arsenic poisoning.