Dr. YANG Ziwei

PhD

Research Assistant Professor

Email: zwyang@hku.hk

Biography

I received my Ph.D. from Yale University, where I studied HIV and SARS-CoV-2 under the mentorship of Dr. Walther Mothes, uncovering the antiviral mechanisms of human SERINC proteins and investigating viral spike protein dynamics using single-molecule FRET (smFRET). As a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Atlas Wang’s group at UT Austin, I applied machine learning to infectious disease diagnostics, developing AI models for viral infection detection from single-cell transcriptomic data. My research bridges structural virology and AI, with a focus on advancing smFRET technology to study protein dynamics in native environments and building open, integrative tools for the broader biomedical community.

research focus

  1. Studying viral protein dynamics using smFRET
  2. Integrating structural virology and AI to advance studies of protein dynamics
  3. Developing AI-driven diagnostic tools for microbial infections

Selected publications

  1. Leonhardt SA*, Purdy MD*, Grover JR*, Yang Z* (equal contributiuon), Poulos S, McIntire WE, Tatham EA, Erramilli SK, Nosol K, Lai KK, Ding S, Lu M, Uchil PD, Finzi A, Rein A, Kossiakoff AA, Mothes W, Yeager M. Antiviral HIV-1 SERINC restriction factors disrupt virus membrane asymmetry. Nat Comm. 2023 Jul 20;14(1):4368. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-39262-2. PMID: 37474505; PMCID: PMC10359404. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-39262-2

 

  1. Yang, Z., Han, Y., Ding, S., Shi, W., Zhou, T., Finzi, A., Kwong, P. D., Mothes, W., & Lu, M. (2022). SARS-CoV-2 Variants Increase Kinetic Stability of Open Spike Conformations as an Evolutionary Strategy. mBio, 13(1), e0322721. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.03227-21

 

  1. Yang, Z., Chen, X., Zhu, B., Chen, T. and Wang, Z., 2025. Deep Learning for Accurate Diagnosis of Viral Infections through scRNA-seq Analysis: A Comprehensive Benchmark Study. Journal of Data-centric Machine Learning Research. https://openreview.net/forum?id=wlH6Np0Um0

 

  1. Chen Y, …, Yang, Z., et al, Molecular basis for antiviral activity of two pediatric neutralizing antibodies targeting SARS-CoV-2 Spike RBD. iScience. 2023 Jan 20;26(1):105783. https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(22)02056-9

 

  1. Silverberg, L. J., Pacheco, C., Sahu, D., Scholl, P., Sobhi, H. F., Bachert, J. T., Bandholz, K., Bendinsky, R. V., Bradley, H. G., Colburn, B. K., Coyle, D. J., Dahl, J. R., Felty, M., Fox, R. F., Gonzalez, K. M., Islam, J. M., Koperna, S. E., Moyer, Q. J., Noble, D. J., …Yang, Z. (2020). T3P-promoted synthesis of a series of novel 3-aryl-2-phenyl-2,3-dihydro-4H-1,3-benzothiazin-4-ones. Journal of Heterocyclic Chemistry, 57(4), 1797-1805. https://doi.org/10.1002/jhet.3904

 

  1. Yennawar, H. P., Noble, D. J., Yang, Z., and Silverberg, L. J. “rac-2,3-Diphenyl-2,3-dihydro-4H-pyrido[3,2-e]- [1,3] thiazin-4-one 1-oxide.” IUCrData, 2017. https://iucrdata.iucr.org/x/issues/2017/08/00/su5380/

 

  1. Yennawar, H. P., Fox, R., Moyer, Q. J., Yang, Z., and Silverberg, L. J. “Crystal structure of 2,3-di-phenyl-2,3-di-hydro-4H-1,3-benzo-thia-zin-4-one 1-oxide.” Acta Crystallographica Section E: Crystallographic Communications, 2017. https://journals.iucr.org/e/issues/2017/08/00/zs2384/index.html

 

  1. Yennawar, H. P., Yang, Z., and Silverberg, L. J. “Crystal structure of rac-2,3-diphenyl-2,3,5,6-tetrahydro-4H-1,3-thiazin-4-one 1-oxide.” Acta Crystallographica Section E: Crystallographic Communications, 2016. https://journals.iucr.org/e/issues/2016/11/00/gk2665/index.html

 

  1. Yennawar, H. P., Coyle, D. J., Noble, D. J., Yang, Z., and Silverberg, L. J. “Crystal structures of three substituted 3-aryl-2-phenyl-2,3-di-hydro-4H-1,3-benzo-thia-zin-4-ones.” Acta Crystallographica Section E: Crystallographic Communications, 2016. https://journals.iucr.org/e/issues/2016/08/00/zs2362/index.html