Junying Yu (born 1975) is a Chinese stem cell

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

. She is a researcher at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

Biography

Yu was born in 1975 in

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...

, China. In 1997, Yu graduated from the Department of Biology of Peking University. She then went to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

to continue her research and obtained a PhD from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 2003. In 2003, Yu joined James Thomson's lab at UW–Madison as a researcher. Yu is an important leader in developing novel method of reprogramming adult cells to create pluripotent cells which are not from

embryonic stem cell Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, an early-stage pre- implantation embryo. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4–5 days post fertilization, at which time they consist ...

s. In Nov 2007, a study done by Yu ''et al.'' achieved the production of induced pluripotent stem cells by genetic reprogramming of human dermal fibroblasts (from a baby's foreskin). This groundbreaking result was published in ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

''.

Recognition

Yu, along with Thomson and

Shinya Yamanaka is a Japanese stem cell researcher and a Nobel Prize laureate. He serves as the director of Center for iPS Cell (induced Pluripotent Stem Cell) Research and Application and a professor at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences at Kyo ...

, was recognized as one of the "Person of the Year" for 2007 by the ''Time'' magazine.Person of the Year 2007: Junying Yu, James Thomson and Shinya Yamanaka; TIME
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yu, Junying 1975 births Living people American women biologists Peking University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty Biologists from Zhejiang Chinese women biologists Chinese emigrants to the United States Educators from Zhejiang American women academics 21st-century American women