Fung-Yi Chan graduated in Chemical Technology from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in 2006. She finished her PhD in Biochemisty in the same institution in October 2012. Her PhD work, which was carried out in part at UCSD, San Diego, and at Molsoft LLC, USA, focused on structure-based discovery of novel inhibitors targeting bacterial cell division proteins. She moved to the Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology in Porto for her postdoctoral studies on cytokinesis in February 2013.