Rate My Professor Yolanda Huang

Yolanda Huang, PhD, serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, a position she has held since 2023. She obtained her PhD in Chemical Biology from Harvard University in 2018, following a BS in Biochemistry with First Class Honours from McGill University in 2013. From 2019 to 2023, she was a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Environmental Genomics and Systems Biology division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Huang has also participated in specialized training courses, including Strategies and Techniques for Analyzing Microbial Population Structures at the Marine Biological Laboratory in 2023 and Microbial Diversity in 2015.

Huang's research integrates functional genomics, genetics, biochemistry, and bioinformatics to explore gene functions in nutrient acquisition, stress tolerance, and bacteria-phage interactions within gut anaerobes, particularly Bacteroidales. Her lab pioneered Barcoded Overexpression BActerial Shotgun Library Sequencing (Boba-seq) for high-throughput functional genomics. Research specialties encompass bacterial pathogenesis, bioinformatics, genome-wide screening, genomics, infectious diseases, mass spectrometry, metabolism, microbial pathogenesis, molecular genetics, and protein function and structure. She is affiliated with the Witebsky Center for Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology and has secured funding including a Sinsheimer Foundation grant for mapping the antimicrobial resistome of human gut bacteria (2025-2027, $250,000) and SUNY grants for bacteriophage isolation projects (2025, $10,460; 2026, $9,500). Notable awards include the Life Sciences Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship (2020), NSERC Doctoral Graduate Research Fellowship (2016), Christensen Travel Prize (2016), and multiple other honors during her graduate studies. Key publications include "Barcoded overexpression screens in gut Bacteroidales identify genes with roles in carbon utilization and stress resistance" (Nature Communications, 2024), "High-throughput protein characterization by complementation using DNA barcoded fragment libraries" (Molecular Systems Biology, 2024), "Molecular basis for catabolism of the abundant metabolite trans-4-hydroxy-L-proline by a microbial glycyl radical enzyme" (eLife, 2020), and "A prominent glycyl radical enzyme in human gut microbiomes metabolizes trans-4-hydroxy-L-proline" (Science, 2017). Huang has delivered keynote addresses, such as at the University at Buffalo Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics Graduate Program and the Douglas Eveleigh Endowed Lecture.