Wei Yan is a Chinese-American reproductive biologist, currently Professor of Medicine at

David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine—known as the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (DGSOM)—is an accredited medical school located in Los Angeles, California, United States. The school was renamed in 2001 in h ...

and Senior Investigator at The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. He is also University Foundation Professor at

University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12, ...

, United States and an Elected Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

. He is Director of National Center for Male Reproductive Epigenomics and served as the editor-in-chief of the journal ''

Biology of Reproduction ''Biology of Reproduction'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal and the official journal of the Society for the Study of Reproduction. It is published with the assistance of Oxford University Press. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'' ...

''.

Bibliography

Wei Yan was born in Liaoning, China. He received his MD from China Medical University in 1990 and PhD from

University of Turku sv, Åbo universitet , latin_name = Universitas Aboensis , image_name = University of Turku.svg , motto = ''Vapaan kansan lahja vapaalle tieteelle'' , established = 1920 , type ...

, Finland in 2000. He completed his post-doc training at

Baylor College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) is a medical school and research center in Houston, Texas, within the Texas Medical Center, the world's largest medical center. BCM is composed of four academic components: the School of Medicine, the Graduate Sc ...

, Houston, TX in 2004. His works focus on genetic and

epigenetic In biology, epigenetics is the study of stable phenotypic changes (known as ''marks'') that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix '' epi-'' ( "over, outside of, around") in ''epigenetics'' implies features that are "o ...

control of fertility, as well as epigenetic contribution of gametes (sperm and eggs) to fertilization, early embryonic development and adulthood health. As a principal investigator, Dr. Yan has been awarded a total of 15 grants (~$15 million in direct cost) since 2004. He also so far published >150 peer-reviewed research articles and book chapters in high-impact journals with >11,000 citations and a h-index of 58.

Career and Research

After receiving his M.D., Dr. Yan became the Chief Examiner at

Coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into Manner of death, the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...

office of the Institute of Forensic Science of

Liaoning Province Liaoning () is a coastal provinces of China, province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and i ...

Shenyang, China Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. Located in central-north Liaoning, it is the provi ...

. While he enjoyed his work as an Examiner and developed better techniques for DNA extraction from crime scene samples, but he soon became fascinated with the research aspect and began to pursue a career in research. He enrolled in the Graduate program in the Department of Forensic Medicine at China Medical University while still working at the coroner's office. The next year he took the opportunity to leave China and work as a visiting scholar in the Department of Medical Genetics, at the

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. He would stay at the University of Turku to finish in Ph.D. in March of 2000 under the supervision of Drs. Jorma Toppari, Ilpo Hutaniemi and Martti Parvinen. After a short stint as a Postdoctoral Associate at University of Turku, he would travel to the

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to work with Dr. Martin M. Matzuk in the Department of Pathology at

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. It would be here at

that we would get his first professional appointment as an Instructor in the Department of Pathology in 2003. One year later, Dr. Yan would get his first

tenure-track Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...

Assistant Professorship in the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology at the

University of Nevada School of Medicine 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 States, the ...

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...

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. At UNR, Dr. Yan would go on to be an extremely productive researcher received multiple awards and would climb the ranks to obtain the highest honor bestowed upon Professors; The University of Nevada, Reno Foundation Professor in 2020. During this time he also served as the

Editor-in-Chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of Biology or Reproduction, which is the official journal of the Society for the Study of Reproduction (SSR). Having achieved the highest honor at UNR, Dr. Yan would still go on to seek more challenges and moved to

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to take a Professor of Medicine appointment at the

as well as a Senior Investigator position at The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California.

Research on cellular and molecular mechanisms that control sperm production and male fertility

Dr. Yan and his lab were the first to define many cellular and molecular processes that are required for proper sperm development. For example, Dr. Yan's lab were the first to describe the development of the connecting piece that links the sperm head to the tail, often called the "neck" of the sperm. This discovery has helped researchers in the field understand headless sperm syndrome seen in infertile men. His lab also discovered and described the process of cytoplasmic removal during spermatogenesis. Furthermore, Dr. Yan and his group were also the first to describe the importance of motile cilia during sperm transport from the rete testis to the epididymis when they discovered that defective motile cilia that line the efferent ductal can cause sperm aggregation and luminal obstruction, which can eventually lead to male infertility.

Non-hormonal male contraceptives

Dr. Yan has also been innovative in the contraceptives field with the novel idea of developing non-hormonal male contraceptives that disable sperm rather than killing them. His interested in the field led to the discovery of

Triptonide Triptonide is a chemical compound found in ''Tripterygium wilfordii'', a plant used in traditional Chinese medicine Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an alternative medical practice drawn from traditional medicine in China. It has bee ...

, which is a natural occurring compound purified from the Chinese herb ''Tripterygium Wilfordii Hook F''. Triptonide acts as a reversible non-hormonal contraceptive agent and is the first compound in over 50 years to be tested in mice and monkeys and shown efficacy. This discovery established Triptonide as a drug candidate for "The Pill" for men.

Discovery of novel small RNA species and their function in germ cells

As a young scientist, Dr. Yan was the first to discover mitochondrial genome-encoded small RNAs (mitosRNAs) and endo-siRNAs in the male germline, as well as meiotic sex chromosome inactivation (MSCI)-escaping X-linked miRNAs and elucidated the functions of all during reproduction. As of 2022, Dr. Yan has an h-index of 58 according to

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and of 51 according to

Scopus Scopus is Elsevier's abstract and citation database launched in 2004. Scopus covers nearly 36,377 titles (22,794 active titles and 13,583 inactive titles) from approximately 11,678 publishers, of which 34,346 are peer-reviewed journals in top-l ...

Awards and affiliations

Some of his awards include: * 2009 Society for the Study of Reproduction (SSR) Young Investigator Award * 2012 American Society of Andrology (ASA) Young Andrologist Award * 2013 Nevada Healthcare Hero Award for Research and Technology * 2017 University of Nevada, Reno Outstanding Researcher Award * 2018 SSR Research Award and the 2020 Nevada System of Higher Education Research Award He was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2017.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yan, Wei Living people Chinese biologists Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Year of birth missing (living people) China Medical University (PRC) alumni University of Turku alumni Chinese emigrants to the United States