Jing Yan, Ph.D.

Biography

Jing Yan is an Assistant Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology and a member of the Quantitative Biology Institute (Qbio) at Yale since 2019. Originally from Shanghai, he obtained his B.S. degree from the College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at Peking University in China with a focus on organic synthesis. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Working with Steve Granick, he developed novel reconfigurable, active colloidal materials during his Ph.D. In 2014, he moved to Princeton and transitioned to microbiology and quantitative biology as a joint postdoctoral fellow in the department of Molecular Biology and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Working with Bonnie Bassler, Howard Stone, and Ned Wingreen, he studied bacterial biofilms with an interdisciplinary approach.

Research

Biofilms are ubiquitous surface-attached bacterial communities embedded in an extracellular matrix. We combine state-of-art imaging techniques, bacterial genetics, biochemical tools, mechanical measurements, and computer simulations to investigate how bacteria build such multicellular communities cell by cell, what unique materials they use to do so, and what characteristics emerge at the level of the collective. Ultimately, we will use our understanding of bacterial biofilms to solve biofilm-related problems in medicine and in industry and to enhance the use of beneficial biofilms.

Honors and Awards

2024  Early Career Investigator in Aquatic Microbial Ecology and Evolution, Simons Foundation

2023  Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease, Burroughs Wellcome Fund

2023  Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow in Phyiscs

2021  NIH Director’s New Innovator Award

2016  Career Award at the Scientific Interface, Burroughs Wellcome Fund