Qiyuan Yang was a NOMIS–Salk Fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (La Jolla, US).

Qiyuan Yang received his PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology in 2017 from Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, CAS, China. His doctoral studies focused on NGS technology development and application, especially for small RNA identification and their dynamic and modification in murine early embryonic development. Yang further developed single cell sequencing method as an approach for small RNA profiling of single human oocytes or embryos. Yang identified novel groups of oocyte specific piRNA, providing invaluable insights that expand scientists’ understanding of early stage embryonic development.

As a NOMIS–Salk Fellow, Yang shifted his research direction to study the function of regulatory T cells, a subset of immune cells that play a pivotal role in tumor progression. He developed the ribosome profiling system for primary CD4⁺ T cells to reveal differential translated genes and utilized high-throughput CRISPR screening method to characterize underestimated but critical genes in T help cell differentiation and function. Taking advantage of his biochemistry background, he explored technologies for low-input or in vivo translatome analysis on T cells in the tumor microenvironment. Using these methods, Yang sought to identify novel genes and pathways that can enhance T cells’ activity and translate these findings for the treatment of cancer.