Yi Rao is the Dean of Sciences at Peking University, a Chair Professor and the Founding Director of the PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, the Founding Director of PKU-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, and the Founding Director of the Chinese Institute for Brain Research at Beijing.
Rao received medical and graduate training in China from 1978 to 1985. He obtained his PhD from the University of California at San Francisco in 1991 with a thesis on molecular and genetic analysis of cellular communication in Drosophila neural development. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard working on molecular mechanisms of neural development in amphibians. He was on the faculty of Washington University School of Medicine from 1994 to 2004 and Northwestern University School of Medicine from 2004 to 2007, where his lab worked on molecular and cellular basis of neural development, revealing the origin of two eyes in a single morphogenetic field, discovering the chemorepellent function of the Slit proteins in axon guidance and neuronal migration, and dissecting signal transduction mechanisms of the chemorepellent Slit and and chemoattractant Netrin. His lab has found conserved guidance mechanisms between neurons and leukocytes. In 2007, he returned to China as the Dean of the School of Life Sciences at Peking University. His lab currently investigates molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying behavior and cognition. Rao has proposed the concept of chemoconnectome (CCT) as the entire set of neurotransmitters, neuromodulators, neuropeptides and their receptors underlying chemical transmission in an animal. The Rao lab has invented the generally applicable chemoconnectomics approach and generated new genetic resources to study the functional roles of genes and cells in the CCT, to manipulate chemical transmission and to map neural circuits. In humans, they use genetics, genomics and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate genes and brain regions important in cognition. The Rao lab has carried out research with flies, frogs, mice, rats, monkeys and humans to understand fundamental mechanisms both those conserved among animals and those unique for humans.
Rao is instrumental in reforming and establishing several leading institutions of science and higher education in China. He assisted the establishment of the Institute of Neuroscience (ION) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai (1999) and participated in establishment of the National Institute for Biological Sciences (NIBS) in Beijing (2004). He was a co-founder or founder of the Shanghai Institute for Advanced Studies (2002), the Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences (2011), the PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research (2012) and the Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing (2018). He is a co-founder of the Westlake University. He is a founding member of Scientific Committee of the Future Science Prize of China (2016), and a co-founder of the Xplorer Prize for Science and Technology of China (2018). He joined the Medical Advisory Board of the Canada Gairdner International Award in 2018.
Rao has taught courses in neurobiology, genetics, developmental biology, molecular biology, cell biology and pharmacology. He has continuously taught the course Concepts and Approaches in Biology (CAB) since 2008, focusing on classic experiments in genetics from Mendel (1866), Miescher (1871), Morgan (1910), Griffith (1928), to Avery, MacLeod and McCarty (1944), in developmental biology from Roux (1888), Spemann and Mangold (1924), Lewis (1978) to Nusslein-Volhard and Wieschaus (1980), in neurochemistry from Bernard (1857), Langley (1901), Elliot (1905) to Dale (1910) and Loewi (1921), in electrophysiology from Adrian (1912), Hodgkin and Huxley (1939), Katz (1952), to Hubel and Wiesel (1962), and in immunology from Behring and Kitasato (1890), Ehrlich (1900), Owen (1945) to Burnet (1959).
饶毅现任北京大学校务委员会副主任、理学部主任、生物学讲席教授。他是北大麦戈文研究所创始所长、北大-清华生命科学联合中心创始主任、北京脑中心创始主任。
饶毅于1978年至1985年在江西和上海接受医学和研究生教育，1985年赴美在旧金山加州大学（UCSF）念研究生，1991年获博士学位，论文为“果蝇神经发育中细胞间交流的分子和遗传分析”。他在哈佛大学博士期间研究两栖类神经发育的分子机理。1994年至2007年，饶毅分别在美国圣路易斯的华盛顿大学和芝加哥的西北大学任教，研究神经发育的分子和细胞机理，发现两眼来自胚胎早期同一形态发生场，揭示Slit蛋白质的化学排斥性导向作用，研究化学排斥分子Slit和化学吸引分子Netrin的信号转导通路。他实验室还发现神经细胞和白细胞有保守的分子导向机理。
2007年，饶毅全职回中国，出任北京大学生命科学学院院长至2013年。他的实验室研究行为和认知的分子机理。饶毅提出化学连接组（CCT）的概念（涵盖同一动物中所有的神经递质、神经调质、神经肽及其受体）。饶实验室发明化学连接组学的途径，制备必需的遗传工具，研究CCT中基因和细胞的功能作用、操纵化学传递、揭示神经环路。在人类，饶实验室用遗传学、基因组学和功能性核磁共振研究认知重要的基因和脑区。饶实验室研究对象包括果蝇、蛙、小鼠、大鼠、猴、人，以理解动物中普遍存在的和人特有的基本原理。
饶毅参与过中国多个科学和教育机构的改革和新建。他协助中国科学院在上海成立神经科学研究所（1999）。他参与建立北京生命科学研究所（2004）。他组建或共同组建中国科学院上海交叉学科研究中心（2002）、北大-清华生命科学联合中心（2011）、北大麦戈文/IDG脑研究所（2012）、北京脑科学中心（2018）。他是西湖大学的共同发起者之一、并曾兼任其基础医学研究所所长。他是中国“未来科学大奖”发起科学家之一（2016），“科学探索奖”的共同发起者（2018）。2018年，饶毅出任加拿大Gairdner国际医学大奖医学委员会成员。
饶毅的教学涵盖神经生物学、遗传学、发育生物学、分子生物学、细胞生物学和药理学。自2008年以来，他每年讲授《生物学概念与途径》课程，集中讲授生物学经典实验的来龙去脉：遗传学从Mendel (1866), Miescher (1871), Morgan (1910), Griffith (1928) 至Avery, MacLeod and McCarty (1944)，发育生物学从 Roux (1888), Spemann and Mangold (1924), Lewis (1978)至 Nusslein-Volhard and Wieschaus (1980),神经化学从Bernard (1857), Langley (1901), Elliot (1905) 至 Dale (1910) and Loewi (1921)，电生理从Adrian (1912), Hodgkin and Huxley (1939), Katz (1952) 至 Hubel and Wiesel (1962)，免疫学从Behring and Kitasato (1890), Ehrlich (1900), Owen (1945) 至 Burnet (1959)。