Gan was born in Xiangyin County, Yueyang, Hunan province in 1963. She received her bachelor's degree and master's degree from Hunan Agricultural University in 1984 and 1988, respectively. After graduation, she taught at the university. In February 1991, she entered Huazhong Agricultural University, where she earned her doctorate degree in 1993. She carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Nottingham in 1996 and then the Potato Research Center of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.^[1] She returned to China in 1999 and continued to teach at Hunan Agricultural University.

She joined the China Zhi Gong Party in January 1994, and began her political career in May 2001, when she was appointed deputy director of Hunan Provincial Agricultural Department. In January 2003, she rose to become vice governor of Hunan, and held that office until February 2011, when she was transferred to Beijing and appointed deputy director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.^[2] On December 5, 2017, she was proposed as a vice president of the 15th Central Committee of China Zhi Gong Party, one of China's eight political parties subservient to the Chinese Communist Party.^[3] In November 2021, she became director of the newly established State Anti-Monopoly Bureau.^[4][5][6]