Rate My Professor Johannes Yeh

Johannes Yeh is a Research Associate Professor and Director of the CSHL Antibody and Phage Display Shared Resource at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he also serves as a Cancer Center Member. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2006. The Yeh Lab was established at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 2016. Prior to this, Dr. Yeh developed extensive experience in biologics and natural product-like molecules for therapeutics and diagnostics. His past research has contributed to the foundation of start-up companies, academic-industry technology transfer licenses, and FDA-approved drugs or drugs in clinical trials. His work has focused on oncology and immuno-oncology, collaborating with clinical centers and industry organizations to advance molecules from bench to patients.

The Yeh Lab investigates the mechanisms by which dysregulated cell signaling causes diseases such as cancer. The group employs biomolecular engineering, chemical biology, and biotechnology approaches to dissect signal transduction pathways, target protein functions, and develop therapeutics that abrogate pathological cellular behavior. Key efforts include engineering biologics such as antibodies and proteins, peptidomimetics, natural product-like macrocycles, and cells as therapeutics and diagnostics to modulate interactions between cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment, block oncogenic receptors, transcription factors, and extracellular matrix proteins, and activate anti-tumor immunity. Notable achievements include therapeutic monoclonal antibody inhibitors that prevent inflammation-induced awakening of dormant cancer cells. Key publications include 'Neutrophil extracellular traps produced during inflammation awaken dormant cancer cells in mice' in Science (2018), 'Amino-Acid-Catalyzed Direct Aldol Bioconjugation' in Organic Letters (2018), 'Detection of incipient pancreatic cancer with novel tumor-specific antibodies in mouse models' on bioRxiv (2020), 'A synthetic KLHL20 ligand to validate CUL3KLHL20 as a potent E3 ligase for targeted protein degradation' in Genes & Development (2022), 'Manipulating PTPRD function with ectodomain antibodies' in Genes & Development (2023), 'Plasma cells in human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma secrete antibodies to self-antigens' in JCI Insight (2023), and 'Temporal and Spatial Characterization of CUL3KLHL20-Driven Targeted Degradation of BET Family BRD Proteins by the Macrocycle-Based Degrader BTR2004' in ACS Chemical Biology (2025).