Yan Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan Medical School. Her research group employs complementary biochemical, genetic, genomic, and microbiological approaches to study the non-canonical roles of Cas9 in RNA targeting and bacterial endogenous control, the mechanisms for adaptive CRISPR immunity, and to also develop novel CRISPR-based technological tools. Dr. Zhang received her BS in biological sciences from Peking University and her PhD in biomolecular chemistry from University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to joining U of M in early 2017, she pursued postdoctoral training with Dr. Erik Sontheimer at Northwestern University and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where she established Neisseria meningitidis as a model organism to investigate the biology and mechanism of Type II-C CRISPRs and developed the meningococcal (Nme) Cas9 as a robust genome-editing platform in human embryonic stem cells. Dr. Zhang has received an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship, a NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, and a Biological Sciences Scholar Award from University of Michigan.