Yadong Huang, MD, PhD

Scientific Co-Founder, GABAeron

Yadong Huang, MD, PhD, is a senior investigator at Gladstone Institutes, where he is also the director of the Center for Translational Advancement and an investigator in the Roddenberry Stem Cell Center. In addition, he is a professor of neurology and pathology at UC San Francisco.

Huang earned an MD from Qingdao Medical University in China, and a PhD in biochemistry and pathology from Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing. He was trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Arteriosclerosis Research Institute at the University of Muenster, Germany. Huang joined Gladstone Institutes in 1995 as a postdoctoral fellow, and became a staff research investigator in 1999. In 2015, he was promoted to senior investigator.

Huang studies the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, focusing on the roles of apoE4. His lab demonstrates that apoE4 is expressed in neurons where it is proteolytically cleaved, leading to the generation of neurotoxic fragments that contribute to Alzheimer’s disease. Huang’s lab also showed that expression of apoE4 causes age-dependent impairment of GABAergic interneurons in the hippocampus, leading to learning and memory deficits. He has been heavily involved in identifying strategies for the treatment or prevention of Alzheimer’s disease by targeting apoE4. Huang has published more than 120 scientific papers. He is a scientific co-founder for two pharmaceutic companies: E-Scape Bio, Inc. and GABAeron, Inc.