Education

• B.S. : Anhui Medical University, China
• PhD. : Department of Infectious Diseases, Tongji Medical School, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China
• Post Doctoral Fellowship : Division of Infectious Diseases, Case Western Reserve University

Research Interests

Identification of a safe and effective prophylactic vaccine to prevent HIV-1 epidemic is among the highest priorities in HIV/AIDS research. A major obstacle for HIV-1 vaccine development is virus diversity which continues to increase due to high mutation rates and recombination. My laboratory is interested in developing a multi-valent anti-HIV vaccine with a large number of envelope recombinants generated through an unique yeast based recombination system, as well as various primary envelopes. We hope this strategy will successfully circumvent the HIV-1 enormous genetic diversity and lead to an effective anti-HIV vaccine. In related to HIV vaccine development, we are also working on HIV diversity, recombination, and finding novel broadly neutralizing anti-HIV antibodies.

Selected References

• Meijuan Tian, Zhu C, Yong Gao. Update on Anti-HIV Treatment. Review. Anti Infect Pharm. 2012; 9(1): 1-4
• Yong Gao, Abreha M, Nelson KN, Baird H, Dudley DM, Abraha A, Arts EJ. Enrichment of intersubtype HIV-1 recombinants in a dual infection system using HIV-1 strain-specific siRNAs. Retrovirology. 2011 Jan 13; 8(1):5. (Corresponding author)
• Yong Gao, Dudley DM, Nelson KN, Henry KR, Nankya I, Gibson RM, Arts EJ. A rapid yeast-based HIV-1 cloning s ystem to produce fully infectious HIV-1 containing any HIV-1 coding region. BioTechniques. 2009: 42 (6):458-467 (Co-author with Dudley DM)
• Yong Gao, Nankya I, Abraha A, Troyer RM, Nelson KN, Rubio A, Arts EJ. Calculating HIV-1 Infectious Titre Using a Virtual TCID(50) Method. Methods Mol Biol. 2009; 485:27-35
• Yong Gao, Lobritz MA, Roth J, Abreha M, Nelson KN, Nankya I, Moore-Dudley DM, Abraha A, Gerson SL, Arts EJ. Targets of small interfering RNA restriction during human immunodeficiency virus type 1 replication. J Virol. 2008 Mar; 82(6):2938-51
• Tebit, D.M., I. Nankya, E.J. Arts, and Yong Gao. 2007. HIV diversity, recombination and disease progression: How does fitness "fit" into the puzzle? Review. AIDS Rev. 9:75-87
• Baird, H.A., Yong. Gao, M. Lalonde, R. Galetto, V. Giacomoni, M. Abreha, M. Negroni, and E.J. Arts. 2006. Influence of sequence identity and unique breakpoints on the frequency of intersubtype HIV-1 recombination. Retrovirology 3:91. (17 pages)