Biography:

Yingying Gao completed her bachelor’s degree in Horticulture at Jiangxi Agricultural University, where her thesis introduced her to molecular biology. She pursued a master’s degree in Vegetable Science at Zhejiang University, focusing on molecular biology, particularly plant–pathogen interactions and disease resistance breeding. Toward the end of her master’s studies, She started to realize the importance of bioinformatics in guiding plant breeding and transitioned to the Agricultural Genomics Institute of Chinese Academy of Agricultureal Sciences as a research assistant to strengthen her bioinformatics skills. She is now a joint PhD candidate at Wageningen University and CAAS, integrating bioinformatics and molecular biology to advance breeding research.