At the annual research symposium of the Vanderbilt International Researchers Alliance on April 18, the audience was treated not only to groundbreaking science but to first-hand stories of resilience, discovery, and mentorship. Yi Ren, associate professor of biochemistry whose research is transforming our understanding of viral RNA structures, reflected on her path as an international scientist while attendees and VIRAL members listened. She spoke as one of the event’s featured early-career speakers.
At the opening of her talk, Ren shared that she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Fudan University in China. She then moved to the U.S. and completed her Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University, where she was mentored by Frederick Hughson. In 2009, she began postdoctoral training with Nobel laureate Günter Blobel at the Rockfeller University.
Towards the end of her postdoc training in 2013, she ran into a roadblock. “That was the beginning of the revolution of cryo-electron microscopy,” she said, which has completely changed the field of structural biology. “When I started my faculty job search in 2015, I don’t recall that any place was looking for a crystallographer. So, my technique seemed to be outdated.”
Ren applied for a position at Vanderbilt University’s Department of Biochemistry, which she said was “luckily” looking to hire a good person, not one who was an expert in a particular niche field of study. In 2016, Ren officially joined the biochemistry faculty as an assistant professor. “Because of the cryo-EM revolution, I knew I would have to reinvent myself at Vanderbilt,” she said.
Throughout her time at Vanderbilt, she has adapted to new technologies, including in 2021 when AlphaFold2 became available. The revolutionary artificial intelligence system allowed for the accurate prediction of a protein’s 3D structure, oftentimes without an experimental approach. Learning and adapting to new inventions and studies have been important skills for Ren. “I became a better person and more resistant to challenges,” she said.
Growing up in China then moving to the U.S., which has a very different education system, prepared Ren for resiliency. In China, she remembers being lined up by rank after exams in middle school. “You immediately felt the pressure,” she said. But the U.S. is very different. “Teachers here, whether elementary school teachers or professors, are so generous,” she said. “They’re trying to encourage you without necessarily being straightforward if you are doing a bad job.”
Throughout her talk, Ren spoke candidly about the challenges, opportunities, and lessons that have shaped her decades-long career. “Nothing will be smooth and easy,” she said. She also emphasized the importance of self-evaluation. “As a trainee, whether [you’re a] graduate students or postdoc, particularly coming from different cultural background, it’s good to pay attention and objectively assess yourself,” Ren said to the crowd.
Ren seamlessly wove together her career milestones and her personal story, offering a holistic view of what it means to build a life in research across borders and focusing on resilience and adaptability as core themes. She ended her talk with sound advice: “Plan for your future and always do the best you can.”
Ren’s early-career talk was followed by discussions, poster-sessions, food, and cheer. Throughout the symposium, it was clear that international experiences shape not just careers, but entire lives in more ways than one. Attendees celebrated cutting-edge research, but through voices like Ren’s, they also uplifted human stories of challenge, connection, and belonging that drive the science.