Julian Yu

Soil Microbiome Lab Manager

Dr. Julian Yu leads the strategic direction and operational management of soil microbiome research. In this role, she oversees plant and soil studies to inform product development and formulation, and ensure compliance with USDA-APHIS protocols for regulated materials to drive new product innovation.

She specialized in bioinformatics with over 10 years of experience in soil microbial ecology with a proven track record for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals. In her previous Bioinformatician role, she analyzed amplicon datasets to elucidate product modes of action, developed standard operating procedures for microbial activity measurement, and documented bioinformatics workflows. Before joining PhycoTerra, she served as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Arizona State University, where she benchmarked NGS software workflows, carried out phylogenetically-aware community analyses on ecological and gut microbiome datasets, and led wet-lab SOPs and EHS inspections.

Julian earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology from Arizona State University, following a B.S. in Genomics from Michigan State University. She is passionate about translating microbiome science into real-world solutions for sustainable
agriculture.