Name：Cheng Gao

Position：Assistant Professor of Pharmacology

E-mail：chenggao@szu.edu.cn

Personal Statement:

Dr. Gao is researcher in School of Pharmacy at Shenzhen University Medical School. He received her PhD degree in 2020, and continued post-doctoral training at University of Macau. He is an expert in the field of cell-primitive biomimetic material. His research focuses on exploring and developing new strategies and technologies that apply biomimetic and natural vehicles for directly disease treatment and synergistically delivering therapeutics in controlled fashion. By accumulating and integrating tools of pharmacology, biomedical engineering and materials science, he designed membrane camouflaged vehicle, cell-based system and intracellularly gelated cell, which are inspired by natural particulates, from bacterial to cells. Dr. Gao has published extensively in leading journals as first author or corresponding author, including two Sci. Adv., three Nat. Commun., one Matter, one Adv. Mater., one J. Am. Chem. Soc., two Mater. Today, one Adv. Func. Mater., one ACS Nano, one J. Control. Release and two Nano Lett. He received five grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the Science and Technology Development Fund (FDCT, Macau). In addition, his project of “Supramolecular cell based drug delivery system for targeted therapy of inflammatory disease and cancer” has won the Second Prize of of Macao Science and Technology Award-Natural Science Award in 2022, and his other project of “development of a user-friendly herbicide” has won the Third Prize of Macao Science and Technology Award-Technological Invention Award in 2020.

Research Projects:

General Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China, Jan 2024 - Dec 2027, Ongoing, Presided over

Shenzhen Medical Research Special Fund Project, Jan 2024 - Dec 2026, Ongoing, Presided over

General Program of Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, Nov 2022 - Oct 2025, Ongoing, Presided over

General Program of Shenzhen Natural Science Foundation, Nov 2024 - Nov 2027, Ongoing, Presided over

General Program of Shenzhen Natural Science Foundation, Oct 2021 - Oct 2024, Completed, Presided over

Youth Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China, Jan 2021 - Dec 2023, Completed, Presided over

Youth Program of Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, Oct 2020 - Sep 2023, Completed, Presided over

Shenzhen University High-Level Talent Recruitment and Cultivation Startup Project, Apr 2024 - Mar 2026, Ongoing, Presided over

Research Interests:

Cellular structural assembly (extracellular, membrane, and intracellular)

Targeted recognition and drug delivery of cell primitive-based materials

Biological neutralization therapy of cell primitive-based materials

Biomechanical interactions between cell and cell or extracellular matrix

Selected Peer-reviewed Publications:

1. Cheng Gao, Qingfu Wang, Yuanfu Ding, Cheryl H.T. Kwong, Beibei Xie, Jianwen Wei, Simon M. Y. Lee, Greta S. P. Mok, Ruibing Wang. Targeted therapies of inflammatory diseases with intracellularly gelated macrophages in mice and rats. Nature Communications, 2024, 15, 328.

2. Cheng Gao, Cheryl H.T. Kwong, Mian Tang, Jinwei Liu, Hiotong Kam, Shengke Li, Simon M. Y. Lee, Chunhai Fan, Ruibing Wang. A bacterially engineered macrophage sponge as a neutralization decoy to treat bacterial infection. Matter, 2023, 6, 3889-3911.

3. Cheng Gao, Qingfu Wang, Junyan Li, Cheryl H.T. Kwong, Jianwen Wei, Beibei Xie, Simon M. Y. Lee, Ruibing Wang. In vivo hitchhiking of immune cells by intracellular self-assembly of bacteria-mimetic nanomedicine for targeted therapy of melanoma. Science Advances, 2022, 8, eabn1805.

4. Cheng Gao, Qiaoxian Huang, Conghui Liu, Cheryl H.T Kwong, Ludan Yue, Jianbo Wan, Simon M. Y. Lee, Ruibing Wang. Treatment of atherosclerosis by macrophage-biomimetic nanoparticles via targeted pharmacotherapy and sequestration of proinflammatory cytokines. Nature Communications, 2020, 11, 2622.

5. Cheng Gao, Qiaoxian Huang, Qingping Lan, Yu Feng, Fan Tang, Maggie P.M. Hoi, Jianxiang Zhang, Simon M. Y. Lee, Ruibing Wang. A user-friendly herbicide derived from photoresponsive supramolecular vesicles. Nature Communications, 2018, 9, 2967.