Education

2014–2019, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Ph.D. in Chemistry

2010–2014, Zhejiang University, B.S. in Physics

Academic Experience

2024-Present  Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Principal Investigator

2023-Present  Peking University, Assistant Professor/Principal Investigator 

2020-Present  Beijing Changping Laboratory, Research Scientist

2019-2023   Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center (BIOPIC), Peking University, Research Associate

Overview of Academic Research

Cao Lab investigates humoral immunity and antibodies at single-cell and molecular level. Our research interests include the following aspects:

l Antibody response, immune escape and immune imprinting in infectious diseases;

l Development of broad-spectrum antibody therapeutics and vaccines;

l Deciphering the relationship between targeting epitopes and functions of antibodies for various antigens;

l Computational and machine learning methods for modeling antibody-antigen interaction.

2025 HE Science Foundation Research Fellow

2025 Beijing Science and Technology Award in Natural Science (First Prize)

2024 Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation Awards for Outstanding Young Investigators

2024 DAMO Academy Young Fellow

2024 Xplorer Prize

2023 Beijing Outstanding Yound Talent Award (ZhongGuanCun Award)

2023 WHO Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition (TAG-CO-VAC 2023)

2023 The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) Scientific Advisory Committee

2023 China's top 10 scientific advances in 2022

2023 China's top 10 advances in life sciences in 2022

2022 Nature’s “Ten people who helped shape science in 2022” (Nature’s 10) 

2022 MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 China (TR35 China)

Representative Research Achievements

1. Fanchong Jian, Jing Wang, Ayijiang Yisimayi, Weiliang Song, Yanli Xu, Xiaosu Chen, Xiao Niu, Sijie Yang, Yuanling Yu, Peng Wang, Haiyan Sun, Lingling Yu, Jing Wang, Yao Wang, Ran An, Wenjing Wang, Miaomiao Ma, Tianhe Xiao, Qingqing Gu, Fei Shao, Youchun Wang, Zhongyang Shen, Ronghua Jin, Yunlong Cao*. Evolving antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 antigenic shift from XBB to JN.1. Nature. 637: 921-929 (2024).

2. Ayijiang Yisimayi, Weiliang Song, Jing Wang, Fanchong Jian, Yuanling Yu, Xiaosu Chen, Yanli Xu, Sijie Yang, Xiao Niu, Tianhe Xiao, Jing Wang, Lijuan Zhao, Haiyan Sun, Ran An, Na Zhang, Yao Wang, Peng Wang, Lingling Yu, Zhe Lv, Qingqing Gu, Fei Shao, Ronghua Jin, Zhongyang Shen, Xiaoliang Sunney Xie, Youchun Wang, Yunlong Cao*. Repeated Omicron exposures override ancestral SARS-CoV-2 immune imprinting. Nature. 625: 148-156. (2024).

3. Yunlong Cao*, Fanchong Jian, Jing Wang, Yuanling Yu, Weiliang Song, Ayijiang Yisimayi, Jing Wang, Ran An, Xiaosu Chen, Na Zhang, Yao Wang, Peng Wang, Lijuan Zhao, Haiyan Sun, Lingling Yu, Sijie Yang, Xiao Niu, Tianhe Xiao, Qingqing Gu, Fei Shao, Xiaohua Hao, Yanli Xu, Ronghua Jin, Zhongyang Shen, Youchun Wang*, Xiaoliang Sunney Xie*. Nature. 614: 21-529. (2023).

4. Yunlong Cao*, Ayijiang Yisimayi, Fanchong Jian, Weiliang Song, Tianhe Xiao, Lei Wang, Shuo Du, Jing Wang, Qianqian Li, Xiaosu Chen, Yuanling Yu, Peng Wang, Zhiying Zhang, Pulan Liu, Ran An, Xiaohua Hao, Yao Wang, Jing Wang, Rui Feng, Haiyan Sun, Lijuan Zhao, Wen Zhang, Dong Zhao, Jiang Zheng, Lingling Yu, Can Li, Na Zhang, Rui Wang, Xiao Niu, Sijie Yang, Xuetao Song, Yangyang Chai, Ye Hu, Yansong Shi, Linlin Zheng, Zhiqiang Li, Qingqing Gu, Fei Shao, Weijin Huang, Ronghua Jin, Zhongyang Shen*, Youchun Wang*, Xiangxi Wang*, Junyu Xiao*, Xiaoliang Sunney Xie*. BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5 escape antibodies elicited by Omicron infection. Nature. 608: 593-602. (2022).

5. Yunlong Cao*, Jing Wang, Fanchong Jian, Tianhe Xiao, Weiliang Song, Ayijiang Yisimayi, Weijin Huang, Qianqian Li, Peng Wang, Ran An, Jing Wang, Yao Wang, Xiao Niu, Sijie Yang, Hui Liang, Haiyan Sun, Tao Li, Yuanling Yu, Qianqian Cui, Shuo Liu, Xiaodong Yang, Shuo Du, Zhiying Zhang, Xiaohua Hao, Fei Shao, Ronghua Jin, Xiangxi Wang*, Junyu Xiao*, Youchun Wang*, Xiaoliang Sunney Xie*. Omicron escapes the majority of existing SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies. Nature. 602: 657-663. (2022).

6. Yunlong Cao, Bin Su, Xianghua Guo, Wenjie Sun, Yongqiang Deng, Linlin Bao, Qinyu Zhu, Xu Zhang, Yinghui Zheng, Chenyang Geng, Xiaoran Chai, Runsheng He, Xiaofeng Li, Qi Lv, Hua Zhu, Wei Deng, Yanfeng Xu, Yanjun Wang, Luxin Qiao, Yafang Tan, Liyang Song, Guopeng Wang, Xiaoxia Du, Ning Gao, Jiangning Liu, Junyu Xiao, Xiao-Dong Su, Zongmin Du, Yingmei Feng, Chuan Qin*, Chengfeng Qin*, Ronghua Jin*, Xiaoliang Sunney Xie*. Potent Neutralizing Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 Identified by High-Throughput Single-Cell Sequencing of Convalescent Patients’ B Cells. Cell. 182: 73-84.e16 (2020).

7. Fanchong Jian, Anna Z. Wec, Leilei Feng, Yuanling Yu, Lei Wang, Peng Wang, Lingling Yu, Jing Wang, Jacob Hou, Daniela Montes Berrueta, Diana Lee, Tessa Speidel, LingZhi Ma, Thu Kim, Ayijiang Yisimayi, Weiliang Song, Jing Wang, Lu Liu, Sijie Yang, Xiao Niu, Tianhe Xiao, Ran An, Yao Wang, Fei Shao, Youchun Wang, Simone Pecetta, Xiangxi Wang*, Laura M. Walker*, Yunlong Ca*. Viral evolution prediction identifies broadly neutralizing antibodies to existing and prospective SARS-CoV-2 variants. Nature Microbiology 10: 2003-2017 (2025).

8. Sijie Yang, Yuanling Yu, Yanli Xu, Fanchong Jian, Weiliang Song, Ayijiang Yisimayi, Peng Wang, Jing Wang, Jingyi Liu, Lingling Yu, Xiao Niu, Jing Wang, Yao Wang, Fei Shao, Ronghua Jin, Youchun Wang, Yunlong Cao*. Fast evolution of SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.86 to JN.1 under heavy immune pressure. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 24(2): e70-e72 (2024).

9. Can Yue, Weiliang Song, Lei Wang, Fanchong Jian, Xiaosu Chen, Fei Gao, Zhongyang Shen, Youchun Wang, Xiangxi Wang*, Yunlong Cao*. ACE2 binding and antibody evasion in enhanced transmissibility of XBB.1.5. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 23(3):278-280 (2023).

10. Zhen Cui, Pan Liu, Nan Wang, Lei Wang, Kaiyue Fan, Qianhui Zhu, Kang Wang, Ruihong Chen, Rui Feng, Zijing Jia, Minnan Yang, Ge Xu, Boling Zhu, Wangjun Fu, Tianming Chu, Leilei Feng, Yide Wang, Xinran Pei, Peng Yang, Xiaoliang Sunney Xie, Lei Cao*, Yunlong Cao*, Xiangxi Wang*. Structural and functional characterizations of infectivity and immune evasion of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron. Cell. 185(5): 860-871. (2022).