2011.10 – now　Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China/Principal Investigator

2008.11 – 2011.10　National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health. USA/Research Fellow

2006.11 – 2008.10　The Pennsylvania State University, USA/Postdoc Fellow

2005.11 – 2006.10　National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, USA/Postdoc Fellow

2002.09 – 2005.10　Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, China/Ph.D

By using somatic cell reprogramming, trans-differentiation and embryonic stem cell differentiation as research systems, Dr. Yao’s Group is committed to studying the crosstalk between RNA-binding proteins, epigenetic modifications and dynamics of high-order chromatin organization and the involved mechanisms and the molecular mechanisms in cell fate determination.

Dr. Yao’s Group has been engaged in dissecting the molecular mechanisms of cell fate determination and have mainly made the following achievements: 1) Revealing the molecular mechanism by which DDX5 regulates somatic cell dedifferentiation and stem cell pluripotency maintenance by regulating the function of polycomb protein RYBP (Cell Stem Cell, 2017); 2) Elucidating the roles of polycomb protein PCGF5 in regulating the neural differentiation of embryonic stem cells by regulating TGF-β signaling pathway and neural differentiation-specific gene transcription (Nature Communications, 2018); 3) Revealing the existence of novel alternative spliced isoform of chromatin insulator-binding protein CTCF and its involved mechanisms, elucidating the effects of different CTCF spliced isoforms on chromatin insulation and higher-order chromatin structure and cellular proliferation and apoptosis (Nature Communications, 2018, resubmitted; Genes & Development, 2010); 4) Clarifying the epigenetic information of pluripotent stem cells induced from different methods (Cell Death & Disease, 2018; Scientific Reports, 2015). He has published 32 papers in high impact journals, including 14 papers in Cell Stem Cell, Nature Communications, Genes & Development, Cell Death & Disease, JBC, Protein & Cell, Scientific Reports etc. in which he was either corresponding author or first author, and 18 collaborative works in Cell Stem Cell, Nature Genetics, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Communications, NAR, etc. He has received several honors, including "Outstanding Young Scientist Award" at Guangzhou branch of Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2016.

1. Mingze Yao, Xueke Zhou, Jiajian Zhou,……, Hongjie Yao*. PCGF5 is required for neural differentiation of embryonic stem cells. Nature Communications. 2018 May;9(1):1463

2. Wangfang Ping, Jian Hu,……, Cizhong Jiang*, Hongjie Yao*. Genome-wide DNA Methylation Analysis Reveals that Mouse Chemical iPSCs Have Closer Epigenetic Features to mESCs than OSKM-integrated-iPSCs. Cell Death & Disease. 2018 Feb;9(2):187

3. Wufeng Li, Liping Shang,……,Zhibin Wang, Hongjie Yao*. Identification of Critical Base Pairs Required for CTCF Binding in Motif M1 and M2. Protein & Cell. 2017 Jul;8(7):544-549

4. Huanhuan Li, Ping Lai,……, Hongjie Yao*. RNA Helicase DDX5 Inhibits Reprogramming to Pluripotency by miRNA-based Repression of RYBP and its PRC1-dependent and -independent Functions. Cell Stem Cell.2017 Apr;20(4):462-477

5. Hongjie Yao, Kevin Brick,……,Gary Felsenfeld*. Mediation of CTCF Transcriptional Insulation by DEAD-box RNA-binding Protein p68 and Steroid Receptor RNA Activator SRA. Genes & Development. 2010 Nov;24(22):2543-2555