Yingjie received his undergraduate degree from Wuhan University, which is one of the most beautiful universities in China. In his senior year, he worked in Hongtao Yu's Lab at UT Southwestern for his thesis, where he studied detyrosination of alpha-tubulin.

In the Tagliabracci lab, Yingjie characterized the function of c12orf29, a 5' to 3' RNA ligase. Yingjie defended his thesis in December 2024.