Yang got his B.S. in Biology in Nanjing University in China in 2005 and then joined the Department of Biology in Pennsylvania State University at University Park as a graduate student where he studied molecular evolution of virus there and got his M.S. in 2008. He then was admitted to UNC-Chapel Hill's BBSP Ph.D. program and joined the de Silva Lab in Department of Microbiology and Immunology in 2008 and focuses his research on the Antibody-Dependent Enhancement of Dengue virus.