William H. Yong, M.D.

Director, Brain Tissue Translational Resource | BTTR

Professor, Surgical Pathology

Associate Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Autopsy

Neuropathology

Member, Brain Research Institute

JCCC Signal Transduction and Therapeutics Program Area

Biography

Dr. Yong obtained a bachelors degree in molecular biology at UC Berkeley and a masters degree in biology (cellular and molecular) at San Francisco State University. For the masters degree, he studied the AIDS retrovirus while in the laboratory of Professor Jay Levy at UCSF. He attended medical school at UCLA where he completed his Honors thesis research with Professor Harry Vinters and graduated as a Deans Scholar. He trained in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, where he worked in the molecular neuro-oncology laboratory of Dr. David Louis. For his work there, Dr. Yong was awarded the American Association of Neuropathologists Lucien J. Rubinstein Award in Neuro-oncology. He completed his neuropathology fellowship at UCLA. Subsequently, he was the Director of Neuropathology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for eight years before returning to the UCLA Medical Center. He is currently Director of the UCLA Brain Tumor Translational Resource and of the UCLA Neuropathology Fellowship Program. Along with Drs. R. Mehta, H. Vinters and others, he is a recent co-awardeee of the Moore Award from the American Association of Neuropathologists. Dr. Yong is Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Neuro-oncology and the Journal of Chinese Clinical Medicine. He teaches UCLA medical and dental students as well as residents and fellows in pathology, neuropathology, neurosurgery, and neurology. As an attending neuropathologist at the UCLA Medical Center, his clinical expertise includes brain and pituitary tumors as well as neuromuscular pathology. He works closely with UCLA Neurosurgery and Neuro-oncology physicians in determining diagnoses and molecular testing of brain tumor samples. He also consults in neuropathology for the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration Hospital, Northridge Hospital, Kaiser-Permanente Southern California, and the National Neurologic AIDS Bank. He runs the Brain Tumor Translational Resource (BTTR)- a brain tumor biorepository dedicated to a cure for brain cancers. The focus of this resource is to develop the tools and logistics to power a broad range of brain tumor research labs in the UCLA Neuro-oncology program. He has an interest in biospecimen research to improve the usability of tissue specimens for biomarker assays and individualized molecular profiling for patients. The lab also focuses on ways to speed the delivery of specimen derivatives to researchers. His laboratory has an interest in pathology informatics including software and RFID technology. It also evaluates and develops approaches for storing biospecimens at room temperature. He is a co-investigator and neuropathologist in research programs on brain tumors, AIDS, stroke, and dementia.