She received her MD degree from China Medical University in 1999 and her PhD degree from Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College in 2006. Dr. Yan was a postdoctoral fellow at Kurume University Institute of Cutaneous Cell Biology in Japan from 2012 to 2013. She currently focuses on the study about the mechanism of UV damage in the human skin. Her research on skin photo damage has received funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.