BE Seminar: “Synthetic and Chemical Biology Routes to Unveiling Host-Pathogen Dialogue” (Aerin Yang, Stanford)

Aerin is a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, working with Dr. Chris Garcia. Her research centers on engineering cell surface receptors/ligands and developing protein engineering tools to study protein-protein coevolution. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from KAIST, South Korea, mentored by Dr. Hee-Sung Park. Her graduate thesis focused on developing chemical biology tools for site-specific modification of proteins and investigating the fundamental mechanisms of post-translational modifications, which was recognized with multiple awards and honors, including an Agarwal Award, a Dow Chemical Award, and a Best Thesis Award from KAIST. She came to Stanford to work on engineering protein-protein interactions by interdisciplinary approaches. During her postdoctoral training, she pioneered a synthetic platform for coevolving two proteins using a “library-on-library” approach, which can be integrated with machine learning to provide unparalleled granularity in exploring protein-protein interactions. Aerin’s contributions have been published in reputable journals, and she has received recognition such as HFSP Postdoctoral Fellowships.