Yalai Bai

Yalai Bai is a Research Scientist and Technical Director of Tissue Distribution and Analysis Service in the Pathology Department at Yale School of Medicine. She holds a PhD and MD from Peking University Health Science Center (1996 and 1990, respectively). Her research focuses on quantitative biomarker analysis, tumor immunology, and machine learning applications in pathology. Key projects include developing automated algorithms for tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) scoring and standardizing Ki67 and HER2 expression measurements. She collaborates internationally on clinical trials, such as the EORTC 10994/BIG 1-00 breast cancer trial, and contributes to translational studies on cancer metastasis and therapeutic response prediction.

• Education:
  • PhD in Pathology, Peking University Health Science Center (1996)
  • MD, Peking University Health Science Center (1990)
• Labs/Teams:
  • Rimm Lab (specializing in quantitative pathology and computational oncology)
  • Tissue Procurement & Distribution team (supporting large-scale clinical studies)

Her work bridges clinical pathology and computational methods, addressing challenges in reproducibility and standardization. Recent studies highlight spatial tumor-immune microenvironment analysis and AI-driven biomarker validation across breast, head & neck, and gynecologic cancers. Contributions also include optimizing pre-analytic variables for antigen stability and advancing open-source tools for TIL quantification in triple-negative breast cancer.