George F. Gao

DPhil (Oxon), MSc

Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)

Winner of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars

Chief scientist of the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program)

Member of the "Hundred Talents Program" of CAS

 

George obtained his PhD (DPhil) degree at Oxford University, UK, and did his postdoctoral research at the University of Calgary, Oxford University and Harvard University.

He served as the director of the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, from 2004 to 2008. He has been working as the director of the CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, since 2008.

 

From July 2017 to July 2022, he served as the director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC).

 

Gao's research interests include the study of inter-species pathogen transmission and molecular immunology. His work revealed the origin and inter-species transmission mechanism of the avian influenza virus, including the virus entry mechanism and T-cell molecular recognition. He has published more than 450 refereed papers, including papers in Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, Nature Communications, Science, New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, PNAS-USA, PLoS Medicine, PLoS Pathogens, Journal of Immunology, Journal of Virology and the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Gao is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Consortium on Anti-Virals (ICAV) and editor-in-chief of Chinese Science Bulletin. He also serves as the deputy editor-in-chief of Protein & Cell and the Chinese Journal of bioengineering, executive editorial board member of Scientia Sinica (Vitae), and an editorial board member of the Journal of General Virology, Vector-borne and Zoonotic Diseases, Emerging Microorganisms and Infections, Experimental Biology and Medicine, and Zoonoses and Public Health.