Yingjie is a first-year doctoral student in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at George Mason University. He holds graduate degrees in Biomedical Informatics from the University of Chicago, Data Science from New England College, and Chemistry from DePaul University. As an interdisciplinary researcher, Yingjie’s current interests span AI-driven drug discovery, computational biology, and the application of artificial intelligence in biomedical research. Previously, his work focused on single-cell RNA sequencing for cancer studies at Northwestern Medicine, cancer-related research at the University of California, Irvine, and spatial transcriptomics in Alzheimer’s disease at AbbVie. He is currently completing a lab rotation with Dr. Iosif Vaisman at George Mason University, where he works on AI-assisted drug discovery projects involving AI-generated small-molecule drug candidates. In parallel, Yingjie is participating in an entrepreneurial program at the Mason Innovation Exchange (MIX), where he further explores AI-enabled prediction of clinical trial outcomes across different drug candidates. Through his research, industry experience, and entrepreneurial training, Yingjie has developed a strong interest in science policy, particularly the regulation and governance of AI in drug discovery and development. He is excited to apply his research background to the COVES Fellowship while deepening his understanding of the intersection between science, AI, and state-level policy.