Dr. Yang and his colleagues study the development and homeostasis of bone and cartilage and aim to understand how these processes are regulated by the protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) and phosphatases (PTPs) under physiological and pathological conditions. The goal of their studies is to translate knowledge gained from the basic sciences into the development of better therapeutics, regenerative, and preventive means to combat skeletal disorders. They approach this by focusing on human skeletal diseases using genetically modified mice and their cellular derivatives as in vivo and in vitro models. Other research strategies employed include biochemical, biological, and histological analysis of affected tissues/cells and bioinformatics in order to gain novel insights into the precise role of interested PTK and PTP.