Yang Wang, MD, PhD, received his medical degree in 1982 from Jiangxi Medical College where he also completed his residency in internal medicine. In 1986, Dr. Wang joined the Cardiovascular Research Institute at University of California San Francisco as a postdoctoral research fellow where he became intrigued with research and decided to pursue a career in bio-medical research. He then earned his PhD and completed the second-term of his postdoctoral training at the University of Toronto. He joined the University of Louisville as an Assistant Professor in 1999 and rose to the rank of Associate Professor. He also served as Associate Director of Kosair Children’s Research Institute at the University of Louisville. In 2009, Dr. Wang was recruited to the University of Chicago as the Director of Basic Sleep Research Program in the Department of Pediatrics. 

Dr. Wang uses a multidisciplinary approach to study whole-body hypoxic preconditioning whereby brief exposure to non-injurious intermittent hypoxia increases the survival of animals exposed to otherwise lethal environmental hypoxia or massive blood loss. He also studies how persistent exposure to intermittent hypoxia, as occurs in obstructive sleep apnea, causes brain injury. His current work focuses on compensatory and de-compensatory changes in mitochondria in response to intermittent hypoxia.