Jinming Gao, Ph.D.
Professor

Download Curriculum Vitae

Jinming Gao received a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Peking University in 1991. He carried out graduate studies under George M. Whitesides at Harvard and received a PhD in Physical Organic Chemistry in 1996. Following PhD, he completed postdoctoral training in Biomedical Engineering under Robert S. Langer at MIT.

Dr. Gao joined the faculty of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University in 1998. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2004. In 2005, Dr. Gao moved his lab to UT Southwestern, where he is currently a Professor of Oncology, Pharmacology, Otolaryngology and Cell Biology. Dr. Gao pioneers the emerging field of cooperative nanomedicine to improve the precision of cancer medicine.  The lab-invented proton transistor nanoparticles are currently in Phase 2 clinical trials in cancer surgery, and under therapeutic development for cancer immunotherapy.  Dr. Gao has served as the past chair of the Gene and Drug Delivery study section, and is a member of the Advisory Council to the Center for Scientific Review at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Gao is currently leading an NCI-sponsored Cancer Moonshot U54 Nano-Immune-Engineering Center to integrate molecular immunology, biomedical engineering and clinical oncology to advance cancer immunotherapy.

Undergraduate

Peking University , Chemistry

Graduate School

Harvard University (1996)

• Acidotic transistor medicine (ATOM)
• Molecular cooperativity in nanomedicine design
• Precision cancer imaging and surgery
• STING vaccine and nano-immuno-oncology

Featured Publications

Polyvalent design in the cGAS-STING pathway

Bennett ZT, Li S, Sumer BD, Gao J. Semin. Immunol. 2022 doi.org/10.1016/j.smim.2021.101580

Lactate increases stemness of CD8+ T cells to augment anti-tumor immunity

Feng Q, Liu Z, Yu X, Huang T, Chen J, Wang J, Wilhelm J, Li S, Song J, Li W, Sun Z, Sumer BD, Li B, Fu YX, and Gao J. Nature Comm. 2022 13 4981

Prolonged activation of innate immune pathways by a polyvalent STING agonist

Li S, Luo M, Wang ZH, Feng Q, Wilhelm J, Wang X, Li W, Wang J, Cholka A, Fu YX, Sumer BD, Yu HT, Gao J. Nature BME 2021 5 455-466

Polycarbonate-based ultra-pH sensitive nanoparticles improve therapeutic window

Wang X, Wilhelm J, Li W, Li S, Wang ZH, Huang G, Wang J, Tang H, Khorsandi S, Sun Z, Evers B, Gao J. Nature Comm. 2020 11 5828

PET Imaging of Occult Tumors by Temporal Integration of Tumor-Acidosis Signals

Huang G, Zhao T, Wang C, Nham K, Xiong Y, Gao X, Wang Y, Hao G, Ge WP, Sun X, Sumer BD, Gao J. Nature BME 2020 4 314

Exploiting metabolic acidosis in solid cancers using a tumor-agnostic pH-activatable nanoprobe for fluorescence-guided surgery

Voskuil FJ, Steinkamp PJ, Zhao T, van der Vegt B, Koller M, Doff JJ, Jayalakshmi Y, Hartung JP, Gao J, Sumer BD, Witjes MJH, van Dam GM. Nature Comm. 2020 11 3257

Transistor-like Ultra-pH-Sensitive Polymeric Nanoparticles

Feng Q, Wilhelm J, Gao J. Acc. Chem. Res. 2019 52 1485-1495

Cooperativity Principles in Self-Assembled Nanomedicine

Li Y, Wang Y, Huang G, Gao J. Chem. Rev. 2018 118 5359-5391

Small-molecule TFEB pathway agonists that ameliorate metabolic syndrome in mice and extend C. elegans lifespan

Wang C, Niederstrasser H, Li Y, Olswald N, Lin R, Jaramillo J, Douglas P, MacMillan E, Wang Z, Brekken R, Posner BA, MacMillan JB, Hang G, Gao J, White MA. Nature Comm. 2017 8 2270

A STING-Activating Nanovaccine for Cancer Immunotherapy

Luo M, Wang H, Wang Z, Cai H, Lu Z, Li Y, Du M, Huang G, Wang C, Chen X, Porembka MR, Lea J, Frankel AE, Fu Y, Chen ZJ, Gao J. Nature Nanotech. 2017 12 648-654