Education

2001 – 2006 Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, New York. Advisor: Dr. Joachim Frank.

 
1996 – 2000 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, China.

Academic Experience

2017/04 – present,      Professor, School of Life Sciences, Peking University
2017/04 - present,      PI, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences
2008/12 – 2017/03,     Assistant Professor, Associate Professor with tenure, Full Professor, School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University
2007/01 – 2008/12,  Research Associate, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY (2008/04-2008/12); Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY (2007/01-2008/03)
2006/08 – 2006/12,     Research Affiliate, Health Research Inc., Wadsworth Center, Albany, New York

Overview of Academic Research

The research interest of Dr. Gao is to understand mechanistic details of various molecular machines in the cell, using cryo-EM as a major tool. In the past a few years, Dr. Gao has primarily focused on studying large RNA/DNA-protein complexes, including those involved in ribosome biogenesis and DNA metabolism. At Changping Laboratory, Dr. Gao continues to work on structural and functional dissection of the interactions between host cells and various pathogens, aiming at the discovery of novel therapeutic targets. 

Representative Research Achievements

1. Ma, C., Wang, C.,Luo, D., Yan, L., Yang, W., Li, N., and Gao, N. (2022). Structural insights into the membranemicrodomain organization by SPFH family proteins. Cell Res 32,176-189.

2. Yang, F., Guo, L.,Li, Y., Wang, G., Wang, J., Zhang, C., Fang, G.X., Chen, X., Liu, L., Yan,X., Liu, Q., Qu, C., Xu, Y., Xiao, P., Zhu, Z., Li, Z., Zhou, J., Yu, X., Gao, N.#, and Sun, J.P.#(2021). Structure, function and pharmacology of human itch receptorcomplexes. Nature 600, 164-169.

3. Dong, D., Zheng, L., Lin, J., Zhang, B.,Zhu, Y., Li, N., Xie, S., Wang, Y., Gao,N.#, and Huang, Z.# (2019). Structural basis of assembly of thehuman T cell receptor-CD3 complex. Nature 573, 546-552.

4.  Jiang, F., Li, N.,Wang, X., Cheng, J., Huang, Y., Yang, Y., Yang, J., Cai, B., Wang, Y.P.,Jin, Q.#, and Gao, N.#(2019). Cryo-EM Structure and Assembly of an Extracellular ContractileInjection System. Cell 177, 370-383 e315.

5. Li, N., Lam, W.H., Zhai, Y.#, Cheng, J.,Cheng, E., Zhao, Y., Gao, N.#,and Tye, B.K.# (2018). Structure of the origin recognition complex boundto DNA replication origin. Nature 559, 217-222.

6. Ma, C., Kurita, D., Li, N., Chen, Y.,Himeno, H.#, and Gao, N.#(2017). Mechanistic insights into the alternative translation terminationby ArfA and RF2. Nature 541, 550-553.

7. Ma, C., Wu, S., Li, N., Chen, Y., Yan,K., Li, Z., Zheng, L., Lei, J., Woolford, J.L., Jr.#, and Gao, N.# (2017). Structuralsnapshot of cytoplasmic pre-60S ribosomal particles bound by Nmd3, Lsg1,Tif6 and Reh1. Nat Struct Mol Biol 24, 214-220.

8. Wu, S., Tutuncuoglu, B., Yan, K., Brown,H., Zhang, Y., Tan, D., Gamalinda, M., Yuan, Y., Li, Z., Jakovljevic, J.,Ma, C., Lei, J., Dong, M.-Q., Woolford, J.L.#, and Gao, N.# (2016). Diverse roles of assembly factorsrevealed by structures of late nuclear pre-60S ribosomes. Nature534, 133-137.

9. Zhang, Y., Mandava, C.S., Cao, W., Li,X., Zhang, D., Li, N., Zhang, Y., Zhang, X., Qin, Y., Mi, K., Lei, J.#,Sanyal, S.#, and Gao, N.#(2015). HflX is a ribosome-splitting factor rescuing stalled ribosomesunder stress conditions. Nat Struct Mol Biol 22,906-913.

10. Li, N., Zhai, Y.#, Zhang, Y., Li, W.,Yang, M., Lei, J., Tye, B.K.#, and Gao,N#. (2015). Structure of the eukaryotic MCM complex at 3.8 A. Nature524, 186-191.