Academic Profile : Faculty

ygao_1_2.JPG picture
Prof Gao Yonggui
Professor, School of Biological Sciences
Assistant Chair (Faculty) & Assistant Chair (Safety), School of Biological Sciences (SBS)
 
External Links
 
Dr. Gao Yonggui got his Ph.D from Zhejiang University China, and worked as a lecturer in College of Life Science, Zhejiang University. Later he moved to Professor Tanaka’s Lab funded by Center of Excellence (COE) Scholarship, Faculty of Advanced Life Science, Hokkaido University, Japan. Then he worked as a research scientist in Professor Ramakrishnan Venki’s group where Nobel Prize was awarded in 2009, Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK. There, he made breakthrough in understanding structure and function of ribosome with GTPase factors, for which two landmark papers were published.
Dr. Gao is interested in the field of DNA/RNA-protein interactions, particularly in the structural and functional research of protein translation, regulation and quality control. For the first time, I recently discovered a new crystal form from ribosome lacking the subunit L9, that allows crystallization of the ribosome in the presence of GTPase factors. Based on this, the crystal structures of the 70S ribosome with elongation factor G (EF-G) trapped by fusidic acid in the post-translocational state, and with elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) and aminoacyl-tRNA were solved, respectively. Both structures reveal many significant aspects of ribosome functions at atomic level with regard to elongation, the heart of translation. Meanwhile, I solved crystal structures of E. coli RelE (a toxin related to riboendonucleases) bound to 70S ribosomes in the precleavage and postcleavage states, which provides a clear basis for understanding the mechanism of ribosome-dependent endonucleases (mRNA shutdown). I want to pursue further research on the structure and function of translational factors with ribosome in Singapore. I will focus on further understanding EF-G function in translation as well as in the post-termination complex with ribosome recycling factor (RRF). Meanwhile, the structural and functional protein complex associated with disease and industrial applications will be targeted.

Positions for Postdoc, Ph.D. Scholarship, Research Assistant or Technician are available, interested candidates are invited to email me.
 
  • Characterization of a novel Cas13-based RNA engineering technology
  • Cross-talk between kindlin-3 and IL2 receptor: Structure-function analyses
  • Frontiers in Genome and Transcriptome Engineering
  • Hodge Laplacian based deep learning models for drug design
  • Improve protein-drug binding prediction using deep graph neural network
  • Investigating the Role of Polarisome Complex in Filamentous Growth of Pathogenic Fungi
  • Macromolecular Assembly of the Polarisome Complex Modulates Actin Cable Polymerization for the Establishment of Cell Polarity
  • Molecular Basis of Protein Quality Control by Membrane Protease FtsH Complex
  • Structural characterization of viral IRES interactions with ribosome in humans
  • Understanding the Role of Transglycosylase in Bacterial Cell Wall Synthesis
  • Where and How Ribosomes Fail During Translation