Junying Yuan

Junying Yuan is widely recognized for her discovery of caspases as the central executioners of apoptosis, fundamental to understanding how cancer cells evade cell death. Her work established the molecular framework for caspase-dependent apoptosis and also led to discovery of necroptosis as an alternative programmed cell death pathway. She identified key regulatory nodes that cancer cells exploit to achieve apoptosis resistance. Her research has directly informed the development of BH3-mimetics and other pro-apoptotic cancer therapies.