Congratulations to Jinping Yang for receiving the 2023 Ceil M. DeGutis Prize Fellows Award

Jinping Yang is a 5th year PhD student from the Department of Chemistry. She grew up in a small town in China, where she discovered her passion for chemistry during high school. Intrigued by the profound interconnection between chemistry and the fundamental aspects of life, Jinping decided to pursue her undergraduate degree in chemistry and was supported by the Top-Notch Student Cultivation in Math and Sciences Scholarship at Xiamen University. In graduate school, she joined Dr. Timothy Wencewicz’s Lab in the Department of Chemistry at Washington University. Her research focused on bacterial siderophores, iron-chelating molecules produced by microorganisms for iron acquisition. In her quest to unravel the mysteries of these compounds, Jinping employed a multidisciplinary approach, involving a combination of techniques such as microbial biochemistry, organic synthesis, structural biology, bioinformatics, and enzyme chemistry. She established new biosynthetic and membrane trafficking paradigms for siderophores, providing insights into microbial survival strategies and pathogenesis in iron-depleted environments.

Outside the lab, Jinping helped high school girls in St. Louis region gain hands-on experiences in science experiments as an active participant of the Catalyst for Change Program. Through her guidance and support, she aimed to ignite curiosity and encourage young minds to pursue their scientific passions. After completing her PhD, she hopes to work as a postdoctoral researcher and delve further into the field of life sciences.