Yan received her Ph.D. degree in NanKai University (China) in 2017. During her Ph.D studies, she investigated the functions of p38 pathway in cancer stem cells in a lung cancer model, as well as how the senescence cells promote migration of breast cancer. Her first postdoctoral position was in Jing Huang’s Lab at the NCI. She focused on the function of SOX9 in osteosarcoma. She later joined Markus Schober lab in New York University in 2018 September she worked to  the relationship between quiescence and metastasis in skin carcinoma. In 2021 February, she became a research associate at Memorial Sloan Kettering and is working to define the functions of ATRX in epigenetic networks using mesenchymal lineage models, including mesenchymal progenitor cells and sarcomas. She likes piano music, as well as cooking, singing, and playing table tennis in her leisure time. She is also a huge fun of Harry Potter series.