Dr Rongchang Yang

Biography

In July 1985, I completed my four – year bachelor degree with a major in plant breeding and production followed by a three-year masters degree on a project entitled “ Genetic study of earliness in tomatoes” in Nanjing Agricultural University, China. In August 1988, I got my first job at the Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, China on vegetable breeding and virology, and later on tomato genetic engineering for cucumber virus (CMV) resistance in Beijing University. In June 1996, I came to Murdoch and did my PhD on a project entitled” Genetic engineering towards CMV resistance in narrow-leafed lupins”, under the supervision of Professor Mike Jones. After I was awarded my PhD degree in molecular biology in 1999, I was then employed as a research scientist at Grain Biotech Australia (GBA) in transgenic wheat research for over seven years. Since 2007, I have been working as a research fellow in the Molecular Epidemiology group led by Professor Una Ryan in the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences.

Research Interest

Molecular parasitology and bacteriology, particularly Eimeria, Giardia, Cryptosporidium, Strongyle nematodes, Salmonella and Campylobacter. Plant genetic studies and plant breeding Engineering to viral resistance in plants (eg. cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) resistance in tomato and lupins; barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) resistance in wheat), salt tolerance in wheat and production of human anti-CD4 antibodies in transgenic wheat. Molecular markers and mapping for plant breeding Development of molecular diagnostic kits for the detection of genetically modified (GM) plants Development of molecular tools for plant variety identification and plant taxonomy