Haiyuan Yu performs research in the broad area of network systems biology. The Yu group uses integrated computational-experimental systems biology approaches to determine protein interactions and complex structures on the scale of the whole cell. In particular, his group focuses on protein-protein and gene regulatory networks and seeks to understand how such intricate systems evolve and how their perturbations lead to human disease, especially autism spectrum disorder.

Toward these goals, Yu led his group to develop the concept of 3-D structurally resolved interactome networks, where multiscale structural modeling, machine learning and high-throughput genomics/proteomics experiments are integrated to determine protein interactions and their binding interfaces on the whole proteome scale. The Yu group is also developing functional genomics assays to study the basic architecture of enhancers and promoters, and how noncoding variants affect gene expression genome wide.

Yu is currently a professor in the Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology and director of the Center for Genomics and Proteomics Technology Development at Cornell University.