Xiangzhong Jerry Yang, founding director of the Center for Regenerative Biology at the University of Connecticut, leaves a lasting legacy as an internationally renowned scientist credited with cloning the first farm animal in the United States from a skin cell.
Yang had a clear vision of where the stem cell research field was headed, and, importantly, understood the need for a collaborative center at UConn to connect the research community.
A firm believer that scientists must work together to further scientific knowledge, Yang deserves credit for attracting and assembling a team of top scientists to UConn, home of one of the nation’s first stem cell institutes. His work helped establish Connecticut as a key player in regenerative medicine.
Yang was passionate about his dream to transfer the knowledge learned from stem cell research with animals into viable ways to help people live healthier and longer.
Although his discoveries helped move stem cell science closer to therapeutic treatments for cancer and other disabling diseases, he recently succumbed after a 12-year battle with cancer.
Regardless of his triumphs in the laboratory, Yang realized that stem cell science would not save his own life. However, he strongly believed in the promise of stem cell research and that it would one day help others with similar cancers.
Just as he persevered to overcome the scientific challenges to successfully clone a cow, Yang persevered in his personal battle against salivary gland cancer that metastasized to his lung in 2001. He investigated and participated in a number of experimental treatments that significantly prolonged his life.
He refused to give up, whether it was in the lab or with his personal health.
“To me, hardship is a fact of life,” he told the Hartford Business Journal in a 2005 interview.
His hardship began when he was born in July 1959 in Dongcun, an impoverished Chinese village with about 1,000 people. Yang recalled that during his childhood, 30 million Chinese people died from hunger and that he was so malnourished that, at age three, he was unable to walk. He recalled that family members were surprised that he didn’t die.
He beat the odds several times during his 49 years. Although he scored at the top of the national college entrance examinations in China in 1977, he had no hopes of attending college because the Chinese government permitted only one family member to attend college; his older brother was that family member.
Believing that he would have no opportunities for higher education, Yang became pig farmer, which is when he developed his fondness for biology and animals.
When the Chinese government changed its policy, his high test scores opened the door to China’s top agricultural university. He recalled being lucky, again, when the Chinese government permitted him to attend Cornell University in the United States as a graduate student in 1983. His studies at Cornell led to several offers in 1996, including one from UConn.
Yang was philosophical and grateful for the life he led. Despite his long battle with cancer, Yang said he was “very, very happy” when working at the regenerative biology center at UConn.
Although he was unable to move stem cell research fast enough to find a cure for his own disease, his accomplishments helped advance stem cell science closer to therapeutic remedies. His achievements will never be forgotten.
