Yaqiang holds a bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics from Xiamen University and earned his PhD in Bioinformatics from the Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He then pursued postdoctoral research at the School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, under the guidance of Professor Nian Liu. His research focuses on the functional characterization of the non-coding regions of the human genome, particularly examining the roles and regulatory mechanisms of transposable elements in cellular processes, development, and disease. Dr Hong has contributed significantly to the field, publishing papers as the first author in leading international journals, including Nature Genetics, Molecular Cell, and Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics.