Jinjun Gao

Dr. Gao earned his Ph.D. in Integrative Life Sciences (Chemistry) from Peking University from September 2014 to July 2019. He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago from September 2019 to January 2024. Since February 2024, he has been an Assistant Professor/Principal Investigator at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School. Dr. Gao has long been focusing on “protein dynamic modifications” with a research style characterized by “dry-wet integration and method development-mechanism exploration,” achieving the following results: 1) developed multiple novel chemical proteomics methods, including high-sensitivity target identification methods for probes, dedicated quantitative software, and efficient multiplexed quantitative methods, and systematically dissected the functional targets of ferroptosis inducers; 2) developed a deep-identification strategy for histone modifications and discovered 113 new histone marks; 3) developed separation and analysis methods for lactylation isomer modifications, determined the true configuration of lactylation, and systematically investigated its dynamic regulation and function under hypoxia, laying an important foundation for lactylation research. As (co-)first author, he has published multiple papers in journals including Nat Chem Biol, Sci Adv, PNAS, and ACS Cent Sci. His current research group is dedicated to integrating artificial intelligence to drive technological innovation in proteomics, focusing on “protein dynamic regulation and chemical intervention in cellular hypoxia sensing and adaptation,” providing new strategies for the treatment of major diseases including cancer.

Selected publications:
1. Jinjun Gao, Ruilong Liu, Kevin Huang, Ziyuan Li, Xinlei Sheng, Kasturi Chakraborty, Chang Han, Di Zhang, Lev Becker, Yingming Zhao*. Dynamic investigation of hypoxia-induced lysine L-lactylation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 2025, 122: e2404899122.
2. Di Zhang*,#, Jinjun Gao#, Zhijun Zhu#, Qianying Mao, Zhiqiang Xu, Pankaj K Singh, Cornelius C. Rimayi, Carlos Moreno-Yruela, Shuling Xu, Gongyu Li, Yi-Cheng Sin, Yue Chen, Christian A. Olsen, Nathaniel W. Snyder, Lunzhi Dai, Lingjun Li, Yingming Zhao. Lysine L-lactylation is the dominant lactylation isomer induced by glycolysis. Nature Chemical Biology, 2025, 21: 91-99.
3. Jinjun Gao, Xinlei Sheng, Jianfeng Du, Di Zhang, Chang Han, Yue Chen, Chu Wang, Yingming Zhao. Identification of 113 new histone marks by CHiMA, a tailored database search strategy. Science Advances, 2023, 9: eadf141.
4. Jinjun Gao#, Fan Yang#, Jinteng Che, Yu Han, Yankun Wang, Nan Chen, Daniel W. Bak, Shuchang Lai, Xiao Xie, Eranthie Weerapana, Chu Wang*. Selenium-Encoded Isotopic Signature Targeted Profiling. ACS Central Science, 2018, 4: 960-970.
5. Jinjun Gao#, Yuan Liu#, Fan Yang, Xuemin Chen, Benjamin F. Cravatt, Chu Wang*. CIMAGE2.0: An Expanded Tool for Quantitative Analysis of Activity-based Probe Profiling (ABPP) Data. Journal of Proteome Research, 2021, 10.1021/acs.jproteome.1c00455.