Main research interests: 1) Development of metalloprotein research tools; 2) Construct artificial metalloenzymes to realize new reactions; 3) Study on the mechanism of metalase reaction. He has published more than 20 academic papers in academic journals at home and abroad, presided over projects such as natural Science Foundation, and was selected as the first batch of China Association for Science and Technology "Young Talent Lift Project".

Mainly engaged in enzyme engineering and chemical biology research, focusing on the scientific problems that the catalytic reaction mechanism of metalloenzymes is unclear, the electron transfer path and the reductive protein are unclear, the research tool for rational protein design is developed by the development of unnatural amino acids, and the design and construction of oxygen-activated heme protein and cupr-containing protein involved in electron transfer is designed, and the reaction mechanism is explored. In the previous work, myoglobin was used as the skeleton to construct the cytochrome c oxidase model protein. Based on the model protein, the role of key residues was studied, the reaction intermediates in the process of oxygen activation were characterized, and the mechanism and electron transfer process of natural protein were described. Through the optimization of electron transport, the enzyme activity of artificially designed metal enzymes exceeds that of natural enzymes for the first time in the world.

2008/8-2014/1, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Biophysics and Computational Biology, PhD thesis topic: Protein Engineering Using Unnatural Amino Acids, Supervisor: Lu Yi
2004/9-2008/7, Peking University, Biological Sciences, B.S.

2018/3-present: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Special Researcher
2016/10-2018/3, Associate Researcher, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
2014/3 -- 2016/9, Assistant Researcher, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

(1) Xiaohong Liu#, Yang Yu#, Cheng Hu, Wei Zhang, Yi Lu*, and Jiangyun Wang*. (2014) Significant Increase of Oxidase Activity through the Genetic Incorporation of a Tyrosine-Histidine Cross-Link in a Myoglobin Model of Heme-Copper Oxidase. Angew. Chem. , Int. Ed. 51, 4312-4316.
(2) Yanchao Pan, Jing-Hua Jin, Yang Yu*, and Jiangyun Wang*. (2014) Significant Enhancement of hPrx1 Chaperone Activity through Lysine Acetylation. ChemBioChem 15, 1773-1776.
(3) Jing Liu#, Saumen Chakraborty#, Parisa Hosseinzadeh#, Yang Yu#, Shiliang Tian, Igor Petrik, Ambika Bhagi, and Yi Lu*. (2014) Metalloproteins Containing Cytochrome, Iron–Sulfur, or Copper Redox Centers, Chem. Rev. 114, 4366-4469.
(4) Yang Yu#, Arnab Mukherjee#, Mark J. Nilges, Parisa Hosseinzadeh, Kyle D. Miner, and Yi Lu*. (2014) Direct EPR Observation of a Tyrosyl Radical in a Functional Oxidase Model in Myoglobin during both H2O2 and O2 Reactions. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 136, 1174-1177.
(5) Xiaoxuan Lv#, Yang Yu#, Meng Zhou, Cheng Hu, Feng Gao, Jiasong Li, Xiaohong Liu, Kai Deng, Peng Zheng, Weimin Gong, Andong Xia*, and Jiangyun Wang*. (2015) Ultrafast Photoinduced Electron Transfer in Green Fluorescent Protein Bearing a Genetically Encoded Electron Acceptor. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 137, 7270-7273.
(6) Yang Yu#, Xiaoxuan Lv#, Jiasong Li, Qing Zhou, Chang Cui, Parisa Hosseinzadeh, Arnab Mukherjee, Mark J. Nilges, Jiangyun Wang*, and Yi Lu*. (2015) Defining the Role of Tyrosine and Rational Tuning of Oxidase Activity by Genetic Incorporation of Unnatural Tyrosine Analogs, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 137, 4594-4597.
(7) Yang Yu#, Qing Zhou#, Li Wang, Xiaohong Liu, Wei Zhang, Meirong Hu, Jianshu Dong, Jiasong Li, Xiaoxuan Lv, Hanlin Ouyang, Han Li, Feng Gao, Weimin Gong, Yi Lu*, and Jiangyun Wang*. (2015) Significant improvement of oxidase activity through the genetic incorporation of a redox-active unnatural amino acid. Chem. Sci. 6, 3881-3885.
(8) Yang Yu#, Chang Cui#, Xiaohong Liu#, Igor D. Petrik, Jiangyun Wang*, and Yi Lu*. (2015) A Designed Metalloenzyme Achieving the Catalytic Rate of a Native Enzyme. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 137, 11570-11573.
(9) Cheng Hu#, Yang Yu#, and Jiangyun Wang*. (2017) Improving artificial metalloenzymes' activity by optimizing electron transfer, Chem. Commun. 53, 4173-4186.
(10) Honghui Chen#, Binbin Su, Tongtong Zhang, Aiping Huang, Haiping Liu*, Yang Yu*, and Jiangyun Wang*. (2017) RSC Advances. 7, 56093-56098.