Chang moved to Columbia University to pursue her first academic appointment as a clinician-scientist. Although initially interested in using representational difference analysis to study the genetic origins of brain tumors, she applied this technique to Kaposi's sarcoma resulting in the discovery of this new human tumor virus. In 1994, she co-discovered KSHV,[1] also called human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8), working with her husband Patrick S. Moore at Columbia University. Chang, Moore and collaborators subsequently showed that this virus was the etiologic agent of Kaposi's sarcoma and primary effusion lymphoma, while others showed it to be the cause of some forms of multicentric Castleman's disease. From two small DNA fragments representing less than 1% of the viral genome, she cloned the entire KSHV 165 kbase genome and fully sequenced the virus genome within two years after its initial discovery.[2] This led to blood tests to detect infection for this virus, discovery of viral proteins likely to cause cancer and elucidation of the role of immune evasion in carcinogenesis caused by virus infection.[3]
Antman, K; Chang, Y (2000). "Kaposi's sarcoma". The New England Journal of Medicine. Massachusetts Medical Society. 342 (14): 1027–38. doi:10.1056/nejm200004063421407. PMID10749966.
