Alumni Spotlight on Jing Yang: Persist Through Setbacks and Enjoy the Journey

When PhD alumna Jing Yang, PhD, joined the Duke University Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology (PCB) as a graduate student, it was an exciting time: the department had just formed from the merger of two separate units and had recruited a new cohort of outstanding young faculty in cancer research. As one of the first two graduate students in the brand-new lab of Sally Kornbluth, PhD, Yang focused her research on dissecting the molecular mechanisms regulating entry into mitosis, using Xenopus oocytes and egg extracts. “The intellectual energy of PCB made it an ideal environment for my graduate training,” she said. 
 

Now a professor of pharmacology and pediatrics at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, Yang said her time at Duke continues to influence her approach to science and nurture her career. 
 

Early on at Duke, Yang learned not to fear failure. “At the beginning of my PhD, several projects were either scooped or simply did not work. At the time, those setbacks were discouraging, but in retrospect they were invaluable,” she said. “They taught me resilience, sharpened my scientific thinking, and laid a foundation that has shaped how I approach research.” 
 

PCB’s strong emphasis on mentorship and its “genuinely supportive culture” between mentors and trainees guided her early development. 
 
“My PhD mentor, Dr. Sally Kornbluth, and several committee members, such as Dr. Xiao-Fan Wang, not only guided me during my graduate training but have continued to support me throughout my postdoctoral work and into my independent research career,” she said. 
 

Yang advises current and future trainees to heed a lesson she learned from Kornbluth: if you try enough, something will eventually work. “The key is to keep a prepared mind, persist through setbacks, and enjoy the journey along the way.”