Research

Our group focuses on the development of state-of-art single cell multi-omics technologies, including (single-cell) spatial omics, (single-cell) three-dimensional genomics and (single-cell) connectomics and their application in "Neuro-immune-infection" system biology and diagnosis. We aim to: 1) develop novel methods for System neuroscience research: such as single cell resolution connectome; in situ single-cell sequencing, novel techniques for interactome and epigenomics (Especially 3D genomics); 2) Understand the molecular mechanism of the interaction of neurotropic pathogens with host cells and immune response, particularly the neuronal regulation of immune response; 3) Optimization and application of the above-mentioned new neural circuits tracing tools, in situ single-cell sequencing and the epigenomics technologies, to delineate the genetic, epigenetic landscape and physiologic function of specific neural circuits at single neuron level, especially depression and autism; 4) dissecting the neural circuits regulating immune response to understand autoimmune diseases and immunoregulation against infection from neuroscience perspective.

Biography

2022.12-present,   School of Life and Health Sciences at the University of Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Distinguished Professor

2022.12-present,   The Brain Cognition and Brain Disease Institute of Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Principal Investigator

2013.1-2022.12,   Huazhong Agricultural University, Professor (Director)

2010.6-2012.12,   Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA, Postdoc

2008.9-2010.6,     Burnham Institute for Medical Research, USA, Postdoc

2004.7-2008.7,     Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands, Doctor

1999.9-2002.7,     Sichuan Agricultural University & Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Master

1995.9-1999.7,     Sichuan Agricultural University, Bachelor

Selected publications

1. Highly efficient and robust π-FISH rainbow for multiplexed in situ detection of diverse biomolecules. Tao Y^#, Zhou X^#, Sun L, Lin D, Cai H, Chen X, Zhou W, Yang B, Hu Z, Yu J, Zhang J, Yang X, Yang F, Shen B, Qi W, Fu Z, Dai J*, Cao G*.Nature Communications. 2023(Featured article)
2. Decoding the spatial chromatin organization and dynamic epigenetic landscapes of macrophage cells during differentiation and immune activation. Lin D^#, Xu W^#, Hong P^#, Wu C, Zhang Z, Zhang S, Xing L, Yang B, Zhou W, Xiao Q, Wang J, Wang C, He Y, Chen X, Cao X, Man J, Reheman A, Wu X, Hao X, Hu Z, Chen C, Cao Z, Yin R, Fu ZF, Zhou R, Teng Z, Li G*, Cao G*. Nature Communications. 2022
3. Neuron-derived neuropeptide Y fine-tunes the splenic immune responses. Yu J^#, Xiao K^#, Chen X, Deng L, Zhang L, Li Y, Gao A, Gao J, Wu C, Yang X, Zhou Q, Yang J, Bao C, Jiao J, Cheng S, Guo Z, Xu W, Cao X, Guo Z, Dai J, Hu J, Fu Z, Cao G*. Neuron. 2022 (Highlight article)
4. Reprogramming Mycobacterium tuberculosis CRISPR System for Gene Editing and Genome-wide RNA Interference Screening. Rahman K^#, Jamal M^#, Chen X, Zhou W, Yang B, Zou Y, Xu W, Lei Y, Wu C, Cao X, Tyagi R, Naeem MA, Lin D, Habib Z, Peng N, Fu ZF*, Cao G*. Genomics Proteomics Bioinformatics. 2021
5. Strategies to package recombinant Adeno-Associated Virus expressing the N-terminal gasdermin domain for tumor treatment. Lu Y^#, He W^#, Huang X, He Y, Gou X, Liu X, Hu Z, Xu W, Rahman K, Li S, Hu S*, Luo J*,Cao G*. Nature Communications. 2021
6. Single-cell atlas of domestic pig cerebral cortex and hypothalamus. Zhu J^#, Chen F^#, Luo L^#, Wu W^#, Dai J^#, Zhong J, Lin X, Chai C, Ding P, Liang L, Wang S, Ding X, Chen Y, Wang H, Qiu J, Wang F, Sun C, Zeng Y, Fang J, Jiang X, Liu P, Tang G, Qiu X, Zhang X, Ruan Y, Jiang S, Li J, Zhu S, Xu X, Li F, Liu Z, Cao G*, Chen D*. Science Bulletin. 2021(Cover Story)
7. RUNX1-mediated alphaherpesvirus-host trans-species chromatin interaction promotes viral transcription. Xiao K^#, Xiong D^#, Chen G, Yu J, Li Y, Chen K, Zhang L, Xu Y, Xu Q, Huang X, Gao A, Cao K, Yan K, Dai J, Hu X, Ruan Y, Fu Z*, Li G*, Cao G*. Science Advances. 2021
8. Differences in neurotropism and neurotoxicity among retrograde viral tracers. Sun L^#, Tang Y^#, Yan K, Yu J, Zou Y, Xu W, Xiao K, Zhang Z, Li W, Wu B, Hu Z, Chen K, Fu ZF, Dai J*, Cao G*. Mol Neurodegener. 2019
9. Digestion-ligation-only Hi-C is an efficient and cost-effective method for chromosome conformation capture. Lin D^#, Hong P^#, Zhang S, Xu W, Jamal M, Yan K, Lei Y, Li L, Ruan Y, Fu ZF, Li G*, Cao G*. Nature Genetics. 2018 (Highlight article)
10. Development and application of a recombination-based library versus library high- throughput yeast two-hybrid (RLL-Y2H) screening system. Yang F^#, Lei Y^#, Zhou M, Yao Q, Han Y, Wu X, Zhong W, Zhu C, Xu W, Tao R, Chen X, Lin D, Rahman K, Tyagi R, Habib Z, Xiao S, Wang D, Yu Y, Chen H, Fu Z, Cao G*. Nuclear Acid Research. 2018
11. Distinct persistence fate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in various types of cells. Xi Chen^#, Xiaojian Cao^#, Yingying Lei^#, Aikebaier Rehman, Wei Zhou, Bing Yang, Weipan Zhang, Weize Xu, Shuang Dong, Rohit Tyagi, Zhen F. Fu*, Gang Cao*. mSystem, 2021
12. Delineating the Organization of Projection Neuron Subsets with Multiffluorescent Rabies Virus Tracing Tool.Liang Li^#,Yajie Tang^#,Leqiang Sun,Jinsong Yu, Jinxia Dai*; Gang Cao*.  Brain Structure and Function. 2021
13. Screening of Compounds for Anti-tuberculosis Activity, and In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation of Potential Candidates. Wei Zhou^#, Bing Yang^#, Yanyan Zou, Khaista Rahman, Xiaojian Cao, Yingying Lei, Ren Lai, Zhen F Fu, Xi Chen*, Gang Cao*. Frontiers in Microbiology. 2021
14. Rv3722c Promotes Mycobacterium tuberculosis Survival in Macrophages by Interacting With TRAF3. Yingying Lei, Xiaojian Cao, Weize Xu, Bing Yang, Yangyang Xu, Wei Zhou, Shuang Dong, Qijun Wu, Khaista Rahman, Rohit Tyagi, Shuhong Zhao, Chen X*, and Cao G*. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2021
15. Fiber photometry of neural activity in specific neural circuit. Jinsong Yu, Yue Li, Mona N Hussein, Zhongchao Wang, Jinxia Dai*, Gang Cao*. Springer Nature, Book chapter, 2020
16. Robust capturing chromosome conformation using the DLO Hi-C 2.0 method. Zhang Z, Wu C, Rahman K, Xu W, Li G*, Lin D*, Cao G*. J Genet Genomics. 2020
17. The DLO Hi-C Tool for Digestion-Ligation-Only Hi-C Chromosome Conformation Capture Data Analysis.Hong P^#, Jiang H^#, Xu W^#, Lin D^#, Xu Q, Cao G*, Li G*. Genes (Basel). 2020
18. The anatomy and metabolome of the lymphatic system in the brain in health and disease.He W, Jing Y, Wan Q, Xiao K, Chen K, Lu Y, Li L, Tang Y, Deng Y*, Yao Z*, Yue J*, Cao G*. Brain Pathol. 2020
19. Rapid Bacteria Identification using Structured Illumination Microscopy and Machine Learning. He Y^#, Xu W^#, ZhiY^#, Tyagi R, Hu Z^#, Cao G^#. Journal of Innovative Optical Health Science. 2018
20. Optogenetic Modulation of Cardiac Sympathetic Nerve Activity to Protect Against Ventricular Arrhythmias: A Proof-of-Concept Study. Yu L^#, Zhou L^#, Cao G^#, S. Po S, Huang B, Zhou X, Wang M, Yuan S, Wang Z,Wang S, Jiang H*. JACC, 2017 (Highlight article)
21. In vivo fiber photometry of neural activity in response to optogenetically manipulated inputs in freely moving mice. Li L, Tang Y, Sun L, Khaista R, Huang K, Xu W, Yu J, Dai J*, Cao G*. Journal of Innovative Optical Health Science. 2017
22. Adaptive Gene Profiling of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis during Sub-lethal Kanamycin Exposure. Habib Z^#, Xu W^#, Jamal M, Rehman K, Dai J, Fu Z, Chen X*, Cao G*. Microbial pathogenesis. 2017.
23. Rabies viruses leader RNA interacts with host Hsc70 and inhibits virus replication. Zhang R, Liu C, Cao Y, Jamal M, Chen X, Zheng J, Li L, You J, Zhu Q, Liu S, Dai J, Cui M, Fu ZF*, Cao G*. Oncotaget. 2017
24. Mycobacteria and Autophagy: Many Questions and Few Answers.Liang M, Habib Z, Sakamoto K, Chen X, Cao G*. Curr Issues Mol Biol. 2017
25. A CRISPR/Cas9 and Cre/Lox system-based express vaccine development strategy against re-emerging Pseudorabies virus, Liang X^#, Sun L^#, Yu T^#, Pang Y, Hu Q, Fu Z, He Q*, Cao G*, Scientific Report, 2016
26. Keeping CRISPR/Cas on-Target. Jamal M, Khan F, Lin D, Habib Z, Dai J*, Cao G*. Curr Issues Mol Biol. 2016