Yan Yu, PhD

Yan Yu, PhD

Primary Academic Title

Professor, Department of Chemistry, Division of Biomedical Engineering, WashU Medicine

Research Interest

Our research aims to understand, detect, and engineer immune function in disease, with a focus on cancer immunotherapy. We integrate nanoscale biophysics, advanced nanotechnology, and super-resolution imaging to uncover how immune cells organize membrane receptors and intracellular organelles to integrate biochemical and physical cues that regulate innate immune signaling. Building on these mechanistic insights, we develop nanomaterial-based tools to quantitatively probe immune signaling dynamics and detect disease-associated immune dysregulation in living cells. Guided by this framework, we engineer immunomodulatory nanomaterials to tune innate immune responses for cancer therapy, while extending related nano-bio principles to antimicrobial materials against drug-resistant pathogens.

Education

  • 2004: BS, Peking University, Beijing, China
  • 2009: PhD, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, IL

Training

  • 2009 - 2012: Postdoctoral Fellow , University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

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