I'm thrilled to share that I’ve officially launched my lab this week at the University of Pittsburgh Department of Ophthalmology/UPMC Vision Institute @Pitt_OPH !
I’m incredibly grateful for the mentorship and support I’ve received throughout my journey from @davidrliu , @ESontheimerLab , and Chonghui Cheng during my postdoctoral and graduate training. I’ve also been very fortunate to collaborate with outstanding scientists like Joe Hacia, Cat Lutz, Nancy Braverman, and Job Dekker, whose partnership has been truly invaluable. A heartfelt thank you to all my past colleagues and those I’ve met during the faculty interview process.
The mission of the Gao Lab is to uncover fundamental biological mechanisms and translate these discoveries into transformative therapies that advance human health. We are hiring at all levels! If you're passionate about driving the future of genomic medicine, I’d love to hear from you. Learn more about my work: lnkd.in/eZpAgYD9 and please reach out to me via danielgao@pitt.edu
More updates coming soon—stay tuned!

Data from the second human treated with a prime edited medicine: a 56-year-old male with chronic granulotamous disease (CGD) had his bone marrow prime edited to insert the missing GT in NCF1, restoring NADPH oxidase function in neutrophils (DHR positivity) several fold beyond the His intestinal inflammation is now normal, and his prime-edited HSCs rapidly engrafted with 15 days post-transplant, consistent with well-tolerated editing.

Each new therapeutic technology is dependent on brave patients willing to be among the first humans to receive a new type of treatment. For prime editing, that's this patient, and an 18-year old who also responded in a similarly encouraging manner.

Patient #2 sent our lab a kind message, noting that helping other patients with rare diseases was deeply meaningful to him.

Data from @PrimeMedicine.

Happy to share our latest work online! Huge thanks to @NobregaFL for his outstanding leadership, and to our amazing co-first authors @TCTodeschini & @ugobananas_uuu for their amazing efforts.🔬

Cell cell.com/cell/fulltext/…

Huge thanks to my supervisor, @NobregaFL , for his mentorship and support throughout this project. And to all other authors, especially my co-first authors: @ZhangZhiyi58692 and @ugobananas_uuu , for their critical contributions! 👏🙌

This paper represents the core of my PhD, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see it finally out. I'm grateful to have worked with such a talented and collaborative team.

And how its antiviral activity is protected through cooperation with the RecBCD system, buffering the effects of phage-encoded inhibitors like Gam.

Together, these findings point to a highly coordinated and layered bacterial immune network🤩.

One of the most exciting aspects of this study was revealing how Kiwa’s membrane-localized sensing allows it to respond precisely to infection..

Kiwa forms a large KwaA–KwaB supercomplex that senses phage attachment at the membrane and shuts down viral DNA replication and transcription.

In this work, we uncover the mechanism of Kiwa, a membrane-embedded bacterial defense system that detects and blocks phage infection — without killing the host.

I’m excited to share that my main PhD work is now published in @CellCellPress !🎉

Read here the full paper:
🔗cell.com/cell/fulltext/…

A few key highlights below👇

Now online! Kiwa is a membrane-embedded defense supercomplex activated at phage attachment sites dlvr.it/TMBrV8

Thrilled to see our Kiwa story out today! A membrane-associated supercomplex that senses infection and blocks replication and transcription.

Huge congratulations to @ugobananas_uuu @Zhangzhiyi58692 and @TCTodeschini, and to all our collaborators.

shorturl.at/l0ayB

It’s out! Read my review with @SorekLab on the nucleotide pool as a central playground in antiviral immunity across humans, bacteria and plants! 🧍‍♀️🦠🌿

& the diverse ways in which viruses overcome these nucleotide-based immune mechanisms 🗡️

nature.com/articles/s4157…

Huge thanks to my supervisor, @NobregaFL , for his mentorship and support throughout this project. And to all other authors, especially my co-first authors: @ZhangZhiyi58692 , @ugobananas_uuu , for their critical contributions!🙌👏

This paper represents the core of my PhD, and it’s incredibly rewarding to see it finally out. I'm grateful to have worked with such a talented and collaborative team.

and how its antiviral activity is protected through cooperation with the RecBCD system, buffering the effects of phage-encoded inhibitors like Gam.

Together, these findings point to a highly coordinated and layered bacterial immune network🤩!

One of the most exciting aspects of this study was revealing how Kiwa’s membrane-localized sensing allows it to respond precisely to infection...

Kiwa forms a large KwaA–KwaB supercomplex that senses phage attachment at the membrane and shuts down viral DNA replication and transcription.

In this work, we uncover the mechanism of Kiwa, a membrane-embedded bacterial defense system that detects and blocks phage infection — without killing the host.

Excited to see this work published! Grateful to have contributed. Big congrats to Sukrit, @CarionHeloise, and all other authors👏!

Shoutout to @oniHQ for their awesome super-resolution microscope, which we used to show RonA localizes to the membrane when triggered by ArdA!👇