Hi, I’m Yunan!

I’m a PhD candidate in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where I study gut microbiome ecology, host–microbe interactions, and microbiome-based interventions. I am currently mentored by professor M. Andrea Azcarate-Peril, PhD, director of the UNC Microbiome Core, where our group focuses on microbiome–host interactions, prebiotics, and translational microbiome research.
Lab Website

I was born in Beijing, China, and my academic background spans food science, nutrition, and microbiology. During my early training, I became fascinated by how trillions of microbes living in our gut silently shape our health.
This curiosity gradually grew into a passion: understanding the gut microbiome and learning how to modulate it to promote human health.

With this motivation, my research focuses on strategies such as dietary interventions and live biotherapeutic products that can remodel the gut ecosystem to prevent disease and support healthy aging. I am especially interested in how beneficial microbes compete with pathogens, how diet reshapes microbial communities, and how we can engineer microbial consortia to enhance colonization persistence.

💡 What I Do

I enjoy combining wet-lab experiments, microbial physiology, and computational tools to answer biological questions.
My technical skills include:

• Bacterial culture and physiology
• Mammalian cell culture
• Molecular biology (PCR, cloning, qPCR, library prep)
• Computational biology & bioinformatics (metagenomics, RNA-seq, protein structure)
• Data visualization, statistics, and reproducible research

🧪 Research Interests

I currently work on topics related to microbial ecology, gut immunity, and microbiome engineering:

• Gut microbiome & host interaction — how microbes influence immunity, mucus layers, and pathogen resistance
• Microbiome-based therapeutics — engineered microbial consortia, GOS/hGOS prebiotics, and FMT
• C. difficile infection — investigated prevention strategies
• Mucin-degrading bacteria — mucus-degraders and their metabolic interactions with pathogens

🌱 Outside the Lab

Outside science, I enjoy baking, drawing, and spending time with my cats.
Feel free to check out my Moments page for snapshots of daily life!

Feel free to explore my research, CV, and updates across the site — and thank you for visiting! 😊