Yuan Chang

Yuan Chang is a virologist and pathologist who co-discovered Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV).

Dr. Chang received an MD from the University of Utah College of Medicine. In 1994, she co-discovered KSHV, also called human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8), working with her husband Patrick S. Moore at Columbia University. Chang trained in neuropathology at Stanford University under the noted clinical neuropathologist, Dikran Houroupian, publishing studies on eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome and progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. Although initially interested in using representational difference analysis to study the genetic origins of brain tumors, she applied this technique to Kaposi's sarcoma resulting in the discovery of this new human tumor virus. Drs. Chang, Moore and collaborators subsequently showed that this virus was the etiologic agent of Kaposi's sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma, and multicentric Castleman's disease. From two small DNA fragments representing less than 1% of the viral genome, she cloned the entire KSHV 165 kbase genome allowing it to be fully sequenced two years after its initial discovery.

Dr. Chang is now a professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh. She has received a number of awards for her work, including the Meyenburg Foundation Award for Cancer Research, the Robert Koch Prize, The Sloan-Kettering Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, the New York City Mayor’s Award for Excellence in Science & Technology and the General Motors Mott Prize in Cancer Research.