Research Spotlight: Ying Fang

Using about 60 words, how would you explain your main area of research focus to someone sitting next to you on an airplane?

My research has been focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of viral pathogenesis, and applying the basic knowledge to develop strategies for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of viral diseases.

During the past 20 years, my lab has conducted extensive studies on porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus, one of the most economically important viral pathogens in the global swine industry. Our expertise in this area provided the basis for more recent studies of emerging swine/zoonotic viruses, including coronavirus, influenza A virus, and African swine fever virus.

How will your work impact quality of life and benefit society both locally and globally?

Our fundamental studies led to the discoveries of new viral RNA structures, novel open reading frames, and viral protein expression mechanisms, which have significant impacts on our current understanding of viral biology and pathogenesis. Key research tools generated in my lab — e.g., infectious clones, monoclonal antibodies — have been distributed to many laboratories around the world.

Besides basic mechanism studies, I have a passion for translational research. My experience in the animal disease research and diagnostic fields gives me a deep understanding of the important links between fundamental basic research and real-world practical applications. My lab has collaborated with industrial partners to develop novel vaccines and diagnostic assays. Some of our research products/technologies have been commercialized and are currently on the market to advance control and prevention of global swine disease.

What excites you most about the future of research in your field?

As a virologist, the future of our research is exceptionally exciting. With the help of new technologies such as nanosensors, sequencing, and AI and machine learning, multidisciplinary collaborations will allow us to better understand viral pathogenesis and host responses. This will lead to better diagnostics, more effective treatment, and enhanced preparedness/prevention plans for future outbreaks of viral diseases.

How has the broader U. of I. research community factored into your success?

I joined the U. of I. in 2019. The ample research resources and multidisciplinary collaborative atmosphere on this campus have expanded the capacity of my laboratory. My lab had great support from the main campus research core facilities, including the DNA Services lab (Alvaro Hernandez and Chris Wright), the Cytometry and Microscopy to Omics facility (Sivaguru Mayandi), Swine Research Center (Glenn Bressner), Edward R. Madigan Laboratory animal research facility with great help from the facility manager (E.J. Eastin), veterinarians (Courtney Hayes, Nicole Herndon, and Suzanna Storms), and pathologist (Shih-Hsuan Hsiao).

I am an affiliate member of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, which provides a forum to facilitate research collaborations. My current research projects involve collaborations with Brian Cunningham (Engineering), Xing Wang (Chemistry), and Saraswathi Lanka (Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory) for developing nanosensor-based diagnostic assays; Nicholas Wu (Biochemistry), Kun Wang (Comparative Biosciences), Christopher Gaulke (Pathobiology), and Adrienne Antonson (Animal Sciences) for bioinformatic/microbiome analysis of viral evolution and host interactions; Masa Matsumoto (Pathobiology) for immunological analysis of vaccine constructs; Keith Jarosinski (Pathobiology) for development of avian virus specific monoclonal antibodies; Angad Mehta (Chemistry) and Shannon Sirk (Bioengineering) for engineering therapeutic antibodies; and Csaba Varga (Pathobiology) and Jennifer Reinhart (Veterinary Clinical Medicine) for surveillance of feline viruses.

Our recent investigation of an influenza A H5N1-infected cat case with VDL diagnosticians (Miranda D. Vieson, Saraswathi Lanka, Colleen Olmstead, Vanessa Revindran-Stam, Megan Sherman, Heather Yee, Martha Delaney) again demonstrates the success of multidisciplinary collaborations.

I would like to use this opportunity to thank everyone for their great contributions. Together, we can reach the stars!

What publication are you most proud of?

In 2012, we published the discovery of a novel viral protein expression mechanism in PNAS (Fang et al., 2012, Efficient -2 frameshifting by mammalian ribosomes to synthesize an additional arterivirus protein. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 109(43):E2920-8.)

Coauthors included the research teams of Eric Snijder from Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands, and Andrew Firth from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. We discovered that PRRSV — and apparently most of the arteriviruses — utilize a highly efficient -2 programmed ribosomal frameshifting (PRF) mechanism to generate a novel viral protein. This is the first natural case of efficient -2 PRF discovered in a eukaryotic system, which is a remarkable development in the translation field.

Since many viruses contain frameshifting sites, the discovery has significant impacts on our current understanding of viral biology and pathogenesis. Given the crucial role of ribosome function in all living systems, the potential impact of this discovery is beyond the field of virology.