# Yu-Jui Yvonne Wan

Yu-Jui Yvonne Wan a Taiwanese biomedical scientist who has worked in three US medical centers.

## Early life and education

Wan was raised in Taipei. She attended the grade school named the National Taipei University of Education Experimental Elementary School and was awarded as an Outstanding Alumnus of that School. She continued her studies in the Taipei Municipal Jinhua Junior High School, followed by attending the Taipei Municipal Zhong Shan Girls High School. She then received her Bachelor of Science with honors from Taipei Medical University, School of Pharmacy in 1979. Wan was elected as the Outstanding Alumnus of TMU due to her academic achievements. After graduating from TMU, she continued to advance her education at Hahnemann University, now known as Drexel University. She received a Master of Science degree in two years and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the same institution two years later.

## Career

Wan started her independent scientific career in 1989 as a faculty member in the Department of Pathology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She established her laboratory at Harbor UCLA, where she studied the roles of retinoic acid and nuclear receptors in liver health and disease development, funded by the NIH. She also performed clinical research for longer than a decade to understand the drinking issues related to gene polymorphisms in ethnic minority populations funded by the NIH. She rose from assistant to associate and then full professor at UCLA before relocating to University of Kansas Medical Center.
In 2003, Wan served as a Full Professor for the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas. She was also heavily involved in other roles as the Leader of the Cancer Biology Program and the Founding Director of the Liver Center. She aided in obtaining multi-million-dollar NIH Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) funding, which benefited many liver researchers in the Mid-West, enabling junior faculty to start their research laboratories and programs.
In 2012, Wan relocated to the University of California, Davis in Sacramento, California, with her appointment as Professor and Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. She became the 129th woman professor recruited to UC Davis. Her current research focus is the diet-gut-liver axis, which affects the development of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). She also studies the dietary effects via the gut microbiome influencing neuroplasticity and skin health, i.e., the diet-gut-brain or skin axis.
As the Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, she has contributed to increasing the department's research ranking at the national level by 25 positions since her induction as vice-chair in 2012.
In 2022, Wan was advanced to the University of California Distinguished Professor, the highest campus-level faculty title that can be bestowed.

## Awards and honors

Wan has received many awards and honors for her dedication to science. A few examples are listed here. In 2003, she was recognized as a Distinguished Women in Research for years of dedicated service to advancing medical research, presented by California Congresswoman Jane Harman. Between 2007 and 2010, she received the Joy McCann Professorship in recognition of contributions to biomedical research and mentoring programs. In 2009, she was recognized as the Women in Toxicology SIG Elsevier Mentoring Award from the Society of Toxicology for outstanding mentorship. In 2010, she received the Chancellor's Club Research Award at the University of Kansas. In 2019, Wan was awarded the Best Tea Health Advocate at the World Tea Expo for her lab's innovative work uncovering the beneficial effects of epigallocatechin-3-gallate present in tea. In 2020, Wan was honored with the Dean's Award of Excellence from the University of California, Davis due in part to her lab's contribution to producing novel nano drugs for liver treatment and prevention.