Tsai-Fan Yu (Chinese: 郁采蘩; pinyin: Yù Cǎifán; Wade–Giles: Yü Ts'ai-fan, 1911 – March 2, 2007) was a Chinese-American physician, researcher, and the first woman to be appointed as a full professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

She taught at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons until joining the staff faculty at Mount Sinai Medical Center in 1957 where she would spend the rest of her career.

Yu helped to establish an understanding of the metabolic relationship between elevated levels of uric acid and the pain experienced by gout patients.

She later conducted a five-year study that was published in 1961 in which she discovered colchicine, an anti-inflammatory drug that prevents recurring attacks of acute gout.

She and colleagues found that phenylbutazone injections lead to significantly higher urate clearance and more efficient excretion, making it successful in treating acute gout.

[5] While at Mount Sinai Hospital, Yu helped to establish one of the first systemized laboratory tests for diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis.

Yu died at age 95 in March 2007 due to respiratory complications at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.