Self-introduction

Dr. Bao is a Chair Professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology, School of Life Sciences. He obtained his BS and MS degrees from Jilin University, his PhD from Washington University in St Louis, and conducted his postdoctoral research at the University of Washington. Prior to joining SUSTech, he worked at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and rose from Assistant Member to Full Member. His research focuses on developmental systems biology and computational biology. His lab pioneered in toto imaging and systematic in vivo single-cell analysis of metazoan embryogenesis in C. elegans and collaborates broadly in other developmental and disease systems.

Research Interests：

◆Collective cell behaviors

◆Emergence of neural circuit function and behavior

◆Spatiotemporal learning for complex tissues

Professional Experience：

◆ 2026 – current  Chair Professor, School of Life Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology

◆ 2008 – 2025     Assistant, Associate and Full Member, Developmental Biology Program, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

                            Assistant, Associate and Full Professor, Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences

◆ 2003 – 2007     Postdoctoral Fellow, Genome Sciences Department, University of Washington

Educational Background：

◆ 1996 – 2002  PhD  Washington University in St Louis

◆ 1993 – 1996  MS  Jilin University

◆ 1989 – 1993  BS  Jilin University

Honors & Awards：

◆ 2018 NIH Director’s Transformative Research Award

◆ 2010 Basil O’Connor Scholar Award

◆ 2004 Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellowship

◆ 2003 Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Publication： 

1. Du Z, Santella A, He F, Tiongson M & Bao Z. (2014). De novo inference of systems-level mechanistic models of development from live imaging-based phenotype analysis. Cell, 156, 359-72.

2. Shah PK, Santella A, Jacobo A, Siletti K, Hudspeth AJ & Bao Z. (2017). An in toto approach to dissecting cellular interactions in complex tissues. Dev Cell, 43, 530-40.

3. Moyle MW, Barnes KM, Kuchroo M, Gonopolskiy A, Duncan LH, Sengupta T, Shao L, Guo M, Santella A, Christensen R, Kumar A, Wu Y, Moon KR, Wolf G, Krishnaswamy S*, Bao Z*, Shroff H*, Mohler WA* & Colón-Ramos DA*. (2021). Structural and developmental principles of neuropil assembly in C. elegans. Nature, 591, 99-104.

4. Wang Z, Xu Y, Wang D*, Yang J & Bao Z*. (2022). Hierarchical deep reinforcement learning reveals a modular mechanism of cell movement. Nat Mach Intell, 4, 73-83.

5. Xu Y, Zhang T, Zhou Q, Hu M, Qi Y, Xue Y, Nie Y, Wang L, Bao Z* & Shi W*. (2023). A single-cell transcriptome atlas profiles early organogenesis in human embryos. Nat Cell Biol, 25, 604-15.