Yan Ning

Yan Ning (颜宁, born November 1, 1977) is a Chinese biophysicist known for her work on structural biology, particularly her research on membrane proteins. She has made significant contributions to understanding the structure and function of key proteins involved in glucose transport and other cellular processes.

Yan Ning received her bachelor's degree in biological sciences from Tsinghua University in 2000 and her Ph.D. in molecular biology from Princeton University in 2004. She then completed postdoctoral research at Princeton.

In 2007, she returned to China to establish her own laboratory at Tsinghua University, becoming one of the youngest professors at the university. During her tenure at Tsinghua, she and her research group achieved groundbreaking advancements in determining the atomic structures of various membrane proteins, including the human glucose transporter GLUT1.

In 2017, Yan Ning accepted a professorship at Princeton University, her alma mater. This move sparked considerable discussion about the research environment and talent retention in China. She stated that her decision to return to Princeton was driven by the opportunity to pursue more challenging research directions.

In 2022, she announced her departure from Princeton to lead the Shenzhen Bay Laboratory in China, focusing on research in biomedicine and health. She is also the founding dean of the Institute of Advanced Study, Shenzhen.

Yan Ning's research has been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including the Sackler Prize in Biophysics (2016) and election as a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences (2019). Her work has significantly advanced the field of structural biology and provided valuable insights into the mechanisms of cellular transport.