Ye Yuan, PhD

As CCRM’s Research Director, Dr. Yuan’s role is to expand the knowledge from basic and translational research in reproductive biology and stem cell biology to improve assisted reproductive technologies, making assisted reproduction more efficient, more accessible, and more affordable to IVF patients.

Dr. Ye Yuan received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at China Agricultural University in Beijing. He then moved to the U.S. and completed his Ph.D. in 2011 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he was trained as a reproductive biologist mainly focusing on in vitro maturation of oocytes in large animals. He extended his research interests to stem cell biology during his postdoctoral training at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

After completing postdoctoral training, he continued working as an Assistant Research Professor in Missouri before joining CCRM in 2017. His early effort on stem cells was to utilize induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from the inner cell mass of porcine blastocysts to clone genetically modified pigs by nuclear transfer procedures. More recently, his research was focusing on developing culture conditions employing different small molecules and growth factors to generate porcine iPSCs with improved differentiation ability. Originating from these stem cell experiments, he developed a chemically defined oocyte maturation medium that dramatically increased the efficiency of producing genetically modified pigs.