She holds an MS in chemistry from Tsinghua University, China, and a PhD from the Scripps Research Institute. She joined Doug Melton's laboratory at Harvard University to study the directed differentiation of human embryonic stem cells toward pancreatic lineage. Her laboratory focuses on manipulating stem cell fate using chemical and biological approaches to generate functional tissues and organs that can be used for translational research. The main focus is on human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), including human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The long-term goal is to apply patient specific PSC-derived tissues or organs for replacement therapy and build up "disease in a dish" platforms for drug discovery.