Dr. Yuan Zhao completed her undergraduate and master's degrees at Sun Yat-sen University in China. She pursued her doctoral studies in the United Kingdom, graduating from the University of Manchester with a Ph.D. She subsequently conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Oxford, focusing on advanced therapies, including gene and cell therapy.

Dr. Yuan Zhao has accumulated over 20 years of extensive experience in the research and development of novel therapies, production processes, quality control methods, and clinical and regulatory application processes in the field of cell therapy. She has authored over 30 research papers, supervised doctoral students since 2010, and taught undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of Reading and the University of Sheffield in the UK.

Dr. Yuan Zhao previously served as the Director of the Gene Therapy Division at the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the UK. She has also held positions as an expert for the British Pharmacopeia, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicine (EDQM), and the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). Dr. Zhao has been involved in the preparation of more than 30 pharmaceutical regulations and pharmacopoeia for the UK, Europe, and the US, as well as the evaluation of over a hundred clinical trials and new drug applications for various companies.