Yong was born and grew up in Sichuan province located in the southwest of China. He majored in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Medicinal Chemistry) in Sichuan University as an undergraduate student and got his B.S. degree in 2013. Then he went to Peking University to pursue his Ph.D. in Chemical Biology under the guidance of Prof. Xin-Shan Ye. During his Ph.D., Yong’s research was focused on the chemical synthesis of complex carbohydrates and the exploration of their biological applications. From April 2019, Yong was a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Jinming Gao in UT Southwestern Medical Center, working on the PET and fluorescent imaging of tumors utilizing an Ultra-pH-Sensitive polymeric micelle platform. In July 2020, Yong moved to Northwestern University to join the Stoddart group as a postdoctoral fellow. His current research projects focus on the design and synthesis of porous carbohydrate-based materials.