Joseph C. Calandra Research Professor in Pathology and Toxicology professorship

Department: Pathology

Email: GuangYu.Yang@vcuhealth.org

Guang-Yu Yang was appointed Chair of the Department of Pathology at Virginia Commonwealth University Health System in December 2024.  He is board certified in Anatomic Pathology and Clinical Pathology, with a subspecialty in gastrointestinal and liver-pancreatobiliary pathology. He joins us from Northwestern University, where he spent the last 18 years, and since 2012, has held the endowed, Joseph C. Calandra Research Professor in Pathology and Toxicology professorship. In 2017, he was named vice chair and director of anatomic and surgical pathology at the Feinberg School of Medicine, a position overseeing 42 pathologists and a staff of more than 80 people in a clinical laboratory that handles more than 60,000 biopsies and surgically resected specimens, and more than 30,000 cytology specimens and 300 autopsies.

A physician scientist, Dr. Yang’s research efforts focus on the molecular pathogenesis of chronic active inflammatory diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease and pancreatitis, inflammation-mediated carcinogenesis, and the interception of chronic active inflammatory bowel disease-induced carcinogenesis, as well as clinical studies on eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders and liver pathology. He has also made significant contributions to clinical research on GI pathology, including IBD and colorectal cancer, mainly focused on the molecular pathogenesis of IBD-induced cancer. He presently holds active NIH grants, including one R01 grant.

Over the course of a 30-year career in medicine, Dr. Yang has authored 212 peer-reviewed publications and seven book chapters and is associate editor of the publication Molecular Carcinogenesis. He is a current member of the College of American Pathologists, the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology and the American Association for Cancer Research.

Dr. Yang received his MD and PhD degrees from China Medical University in Shenyang, China. He completed his pathology residency training at New York University Medical Center, followed by the John H. Yardley Fellowship in Gastrointestinal Liver Pathology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

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