Yuanyuan got her Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Engineering in Guizhou University (China) in 2010 and then completed her Master of Pharmacology degree at Jinan University (Guangzhou, China), in 2013. From August 2013 to Feb 2018, she worked as a research assistant at Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Ministry of Education, China, focused on effects and mechanisms of herbal medicine in neurodegenerative diseases treatment. In February of 2018, Yuanyuan joined the Ittner lab to begin her PhD.