Fan joined the National Cancer Institute’s Small-angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) Core at FNL as a senior scientist in 2014. SAXS is a powerful technique used to study the structure of materials at a nanoscale. By directing X-rays at a sample and analyzing the scattering pattern, SAXS provides insights into molecular shapes, sizes, and conformational changes, helping researchers understand structure-function relationships. This non-destructive technique is particularly useful for investigating dynamic processes, interactions in solution, and structural variations of biomacromolecules in their native environments, making it an essential tool in structural biology and drug development.
Over the last decade, Fan trained 56 young researchers from the National Institutes of Health and academia to apply SAXS to their research. Since joining the FNL, her contributions have led to the production of 119 peer-reviewed publications by SAXS Core users, including 58 publications co-authored by her trainees.
Fan’s education began with a bachelor’s degree in physics from Beijing Normal University in China, as well as a master’s degree in condensed matter physics. She earned her Ph.D. at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and served as a post-doctoral fellow at the Argonne National laboratory in Illinois.
