Yuan began his academic career as a Research Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (1993-1998) where he established a translational research project using lung tissues and cells isolated from patients with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension to study pathogenic mechanisms of the disease.

In 1998, Yuan obtained an Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association for his pioneer work in identifying novel therapeutic approaches for pulmonary vascular disease.

[2] He was recognized as one of the highly promising young investigators in the translational research field of pulmonary vascular disease and right heart failure.

In July, 2010, Yuan moved to the University of Illinois at Chicago to assume a position of Program Director in the newly established Institute for Personalized Respiratory Medicine (2010-2014).

He is a co-author (with Kim Barrett, Susan Barman and Heddwen Brooks) of Ganong’s Review of Medical Physiology (26th edition) (McGraw Hill Education/Chicago, 2019).