Rate My Professor Chen Cao

The research in Dr. Cao’s Lab of Developmental Systems Biology employs single-cell omics, imaging, and microfluidics technologies—including a 3D bioprinter to engineer tumor microenvironments—to probe lineage commitment, cell type evolution, cell-cell interactions, and the gene regulatory mechanisms governing embryogenesis and cancer progression. Her studies on the proto-vertebrate Ciona intestinalis translate developmental insights to understand cancer evolution and metastasis in humans. Dr. Cao received the Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Notable publications include “Comprehensive single-cell transcriptome lineages of a proto-vertebrate” (Nature, 2019), “Cereblon influences the timing of muscle differentiation in Ciona tadpoles” (2023), “The hypothalamus predates the origin of vertebrates” (2021), “Live-Cell Imaging of NADPH Production from Specific Pathways” (2021), “Interfacial Nanoinjection-Based Nanoliter Single-Cell Analysis” (2020), “Regulatory cocktail for dopaminergic neurons in a protovertebrate identified by whole-embryo single-cell transcriptomics” (2018), and “Shared evolutionary origin of vertebrate neural crest and cranial placodes” (2018). Her work has significantly influenced the fields of developmental biology and cancer research by pioneering single-cell approaches to lineage tracing and evolutionary cell biology.