Xi Yang’s research focuses on both elucidating the catalytic mechanisms of, and developing drugs targeting, human type IA and type IB topoisomerases. Topoisomerases are essential for regulating DNA and RNA topology during fundamental cellular processes, including replication, transcription, RNA processing, and translation. 

 

With more than a decade of interdisciplinary research on topoisomerases, Xi Yang’s team at IECB integrates cryo-EM, biochemistry, cell biology, and structure-guided drug design to investigate the molecular mechanisms and biological functions of topoisomerases in the nucleus and mitochondria, and to exploit these enzymes as targets for novel anticancer therapeutics.

 

Xi Yang completed his PhD at the Institut Jacques Monod (CNRS) under the supervision of Terence Strick and Marc Nadal. He then joined Yves Pommier’ lab as a postdoc at the National Institutes of Health (NIH, USA), where he worked across the labs of Yves Pommier, Wei Yang, and Keir Neuman, developing expertise in cryo-EM, biochemistry, and single-molecule magnetic tweezers. 

 

Xi Yang's group is affiliated with the Inserm unit ARNA (Nucleic Acids: Natural and Artificial Regulations) and the University of Bordeaux.

 

Xi Yang has been awarded funding from the French Foundation for Medical Research (Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale, FRM) for the period from April 2026 to April 2029.