William Yashar
Current Program Year: MS 4
Graduate, Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program, School of Medicine
M.D./Ph.D. Program Students, School of Medicine
Biography
Will Yashar earned his undergraduate degree in physics from MIT. As an undergraduate researcher, he applied his mathematics and statistics background to build computational models of complex systems, including mechanistic simulations of dark matter–baryonic matter interactions. After graduation, he became a founding employee at Abreos Biosciences , a biotechnology company developing molecular diagnostics to measure therapeutic monoclonal antibody levels and guide personalized dosing.
Will joined the OHSU MD/PhD Program in 2018 with the goal of becoming a hematology-oncology physician-scientist. He has completed his clinical didactic training and successfully defended his PhD dissertation under the mentorship of Drs. Brian Druker and Emek Demir. His research focused on transcriptional dysregulation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and its implications for novel therapeutic strategies. During his doctoral work, he developed computational methods to study transcriptional regulation in disease initiation and therapeutic response. He combined these approaches with functional genetic techniques to investigate mechanisms of treatment resistance in AML. His work resulted in several first-author publications and provided key preclinical rationale for an ongoing Phase 2 clinical trial. He is now completing his clinical training, with the long-term goal of leading an independent research group investigating epigenetic mechanisms of leukemogenesis and treatment resistance while practicing as a hematologist-oncologist.
Outside of medicine and research, Will enjoys training for triathlons, reading science fiction, and caring for his buff tabby, Amelie, with his wife.
Education and training
BS, Major in Physics with a concentration in Biophysics, 2015, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PhD, Biomedical Engineering Program, 2024, Oregon Health & Science University
One-year exchange as a Part II and III Physics student, 2014, University of Cambridge, Pembroke College
Memberships and associations:
- American Association of Cancer Research (AACR)
- American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
- American Society of Hematology (ASH)
- American Society of Hematology (ASH)
- American Medical Association (AMA)
- American Physician Scientist Association (APSA)
- Oregon Medical Association (OMA)
Additional information
ORCID: 0000-0002-8850-9850
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/William-Yashar
NCBI Bibliography: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/william.yashar.1/bibliography/public/
Honors and awards
2025 AOA Medical Honors Society
2023-2024 NIH/NCI F30 Ruth L. Kirschstein Individual Predoctoral Fellowship
2023 OHSU Biomedical Engineering Society Student Spotlight
2023 Published work selected as Molecular Cancer Research Editor’s Pick for their July 2023 issue.
2023 OHSU Graduate Student Organization Exemplary Future Scientist Award
2023 OHSU Graduate Student Organization Travel Award
2022 OHSU RNAissance Meeting Top Poster Award
2020 OHSU FLAME Forging the Way Community Award
2018-2020 OHSU Medical Scientist Training Program T32
2015 Sigma Pi Sigma, Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honors Society
2013-2014 Cambridge-MIT Exchange Program, MIT
2013 Department of Energy Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships
2012 Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honors Society Quadrennial Physics Conference Travel Grant
Publications
Selected publications
Butler JT*, Yashar WM*, Swords R. Breaking the Bone Marrow Barrier: Peripheral Blood as a Gateway to MRD Detection in AML. American Journal of Hematology, January 2025.
Yashar WM, Estabrook J, Holly H, Somers J, Nikolova O, Barbur Ö, Braun TP, Demir E. Predicting transcription factor activity using prior biological information. Cell iScience, February 2024.
Yashar WM, Curtiss BM, Coleman DJ, VanCampen J, Kong G, Macaraeg J, Estabrook J, Demir E, Long N, Bottomly D, McWeeney SK, Tyner JW, Druker BJ, Maxson JE, Braun TP. Disruption of the MYC Super-Enhancer Complex by Dual Targeting of FLT3 and LSD1 in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Molecular Cancer Research, July 2023.
Yashar WM, Kong G, VanCampen J, Curtiss B, Coleman D, Carbone L, Yardimci GG, Maxson JE, Braun TP. GoPeaks: Histone Modification Peak Calling for CUT&Tag. BMC Genome Biology, July 2022.
Strik AS, Wang YC, Ruff LE, Yashar WM, Messmer BT, Mould DR. “Individualized Dosing of Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibodies-a Changing Treatment Paradigm?”, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists Journal, September 2018.