Dr. Gao earned his bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in mathematics from Northeastern University. He completed his master’s thesis at Northwestern University School of Engineering. In 2014, he returned to the Greater Boston area to pursue his Ph.D. in Dr. Erik Sontheimer’s lab at the RNA Therapeutics Institute, UMass Chan Medical School. During graduate studies, he combined CRISPR’s programmable DNA targeting with engineered ascorbate peroxidase to develop a DNA-locus-specific functional proteomic tool for studying genome biology. Since 2020, Dr. Gao has worked as a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. David Liu’s group at the Broad Institute and Harvard University. He pioneered site-specific large gene integration technologies and led several preclinical studies applying precision gene editing to treat a range of genetic diseases, including peroxisome biogenesis disorders, retinitis pigmentosa, and recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa.
Before launching his independent research program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 2025, Dr. Gao authored 16 publications, including seven first-author papers in journals such as Nature Methods, Nature Biotechnology, and Nature Biomedical Engineering. His graduate and postdoctoral work has also resulted in seven patent applications, several of which have been licensed by biopharmaceutical companies for cell and gene therapy development, underscoring the translational impact of his research.
- Harvard University and Broad Institute, Post-doctoral fellow, 2025
- University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences, 2019
- Northwestern University, M.S. in Biotechnology, 2014
- Northeastern University, B.S. in Biology, 2011
Education & Training
Gao, X.D., Tu, L.-C., Mir, A., Rodriguez, T., Ding, Y., Leszyk, J., Dekker, J., Shaffer, S., Zhu, L., Wolfe, S., Sontheimer, E. (2018). C-BERST: defining subnuclear proteomic landscapes at genomic elements with dCas9–APEX2. Nat. Methods 15, 433-436.
Anzalone, A.V.*, Gao, X.D.*, Podracky, C.J.*, Nelson, A.T., Koblan, L.W., Raguram, A., Levy, J.M., Mercer, J.A.M., Liu, D.R. (2022). Programmable deletion, replacement, integration, and inversion of large DNA sequences with twin prime editing. Nat. Biotechnol. 40, 731-740. (*denotes co-first authors).
Doman, J.L. *, Pandey, S. *, Neugebauer, M.E., An, M., Davis, J.R., Randolph, P.B., McElroy, A., Gao, X.D., Raguram, A., Richter, M.F., et al. (2023). Phage-assisted evolution and protein engineering yield compact, efficient prime editors. Cell 186, 3983-4002.e26. 10.1016/j.cell.2023.07.039.
Pandey, S.*, Gao, X.D.*, Krasnow, N.A., McElroy, A., Tao, Y.A., Duby, J.E., Steinbeck, B.J., McCreary, J., Pierce, S.E., Tolar, J., et al. (2024). Efficient site-specific integration of large genes in mammalian cells via continuously evolved recombinases and prime editing. Nat. Biomed. Eng. 9, 22–39.
Fu, Y. *, He, X. *, Ma, L. *, Gao, X.D., Liu, P., Shi, H., Chai, P., Ge, S., Jia, R., Liu, D.R., et al. (2025). In vivo prime editing rescues photoreceptor degeneration in nonsense mutant retinitis pigmentosa. Nat. Commun. 16, 2394. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57628-6.
At the Gao Lab, our mission is to uncover fundamental biological mechanisms and translate these insights into transformative therapies that advance human health. We combine biomolecular engineering, gene editing, and chemical biology to explore and interpret the genetic and cellular landscape. By leveraging discoveries in basic science, we aim to develop next-generation genomic medicine capable of overcoming current limitations in delivery, efficacy, and safety.