We are thrilled to announce that Immunobiology Graduate Student, Novak Yang, a third-year PhD candidate in Dr. Lieping Chen’s laboratory in the Department of Immunobiology, has been awarded a Prize Teaching Fellowship for teaching in 2023-2024. This award recognizes his outstanding contributions to the university’s central mission and is one of the highest honors a graduate student can attain at Yale.
Novak received his BS in Biology and MS in Cancer Biology and Translational Oncology degrees at Emory University, and was the first to accomplish this in a “3+1” timeline at Emory. Prior to joining Yale, Novak was trained by Dr. Haian Fu and Dr. Andrey Ivanov at the Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, Emory University School of Medicine, with a primary focus on cancer-associated protein-protein interactions and high-throughput drug discovery. He has multiple first-author and co-author publications, and is the recipient of American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET) Travel Award and Program Committee Blue Ribbon Pick, and Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) Tony B. Academic Travel Award. Novak was recruited to Yale Immunobiology in 2021 as a Gruber Science Fellow. His research focuses on the discovery of actionable targets in the tumor microenvironment that drive the resistance to current immunotherapies, and pre-clinical development of innovative therapeutic strategies that normalize anti-tumor immunity for cancer patients.
In formal recognition of this honor, Novak will receive an award of $3000. In the academic year of 2023-2024, Novak taught BIOL101: Biochemistry and Biophysics, led by Dr. Michael Koelle and Dr. Edgar Benavides, and BIOL103: Genetics and Development, led by Dr. Michael O'Donnell and Dr. Edgar Benavides. For 101, he was a section TF that led two discussion sections and also did 1-on-1 mentoring for a group of students. For 103, he was mainly teaching 1 discussion section and helping the students with their final project.
Congratulations Novak!