Xiaojing Gao

Assistant Professor @ Stanford ChemE
synthetic biology, biomolecular engineering

[Xiaojing Gao @SynBioGaoLab]

"Engineering multiple levels of specificity in an RNA viral vector": Jenny finally led our covid-interrupted revision to completion. Thanks to the delay, we managed to incorporate our more recent RNA sensors and protease circuits into the RNA viral vectors

[Xiaojing Gao @SynBioGaoLab]

@biorxivpreprint Higher-order infinitesimal in light of the challenges we are all going through, but still happy that the preprint is out. Missing @ElowitzLab already. Kudos to Michaela and Matthew. Can't have found a more perfect collaborator than Lucy. Thank you all!

[Katie Galloway @GallowayLabMIT]

Nifty work on plasmid chromatinization from @stergachislab !

"plasmids are indeed capable of recapitulating nuclear genome-encoded chromatin architectures, ... However, plasmids consistently adopt a heterogeneous and incomplete chromatin architecture relative to nuclear-encoded chromatin fibers, and surrounding sequence context plays an integral role in modulating whether a plasmid-encoded regulatory element will recapitulate nuclear genome-encoded chromatin architectures."

[Hani Goodarzi @genophoria]

I have long written and spoken about the many ways US immigration policy harms international students and scholars. This has been true for as long as I can remember, including when I first came to the US on a single-entry student visa more than 20 years ago under a process formerly known as muslim registry program.

But the current administration has gone much further, through arbitrary policy changes, travel bans, and broad visa processing pauses that leave folks unable to work, travel, or train.

These policies affect a minority of scientists, and in the current state of the world they can be easy to overlook. But we should not let that happen.

I wrote about the quiet loss of Iranian scientific talent in US labs for @TheScientistLLC:
https://t.co/uX0u2mTRa3

[Jerzy Szablowski @JerzySzablowski]

qPCR allowed us to measure transcripts, but just once, destructively, and only in post-mortem tissues. Here, we show we can record transcript level history in vivo and recover this information with a blood test to make a "noninvasive qPCR". https://t.co/fe6yjsrdGr

[Parmita Mishra @parmita]

@Doudna_lab This is not real.

[Harris Wang @harriswangnyc]

1/ Excited to share our new paper in Science: “Toward life with a 19-amino acid alphabet through generative artificial intelligence design.” @ColumbiaSysBio @ColumbiaBME @Columbia
https://t.co/ZT3Ygw9tiG 🦠🧬🛠️🖥️💥

[Gina El Nesr @ginaelnesr]

Excited to report the first de novo enzyme catalyzing two of the most energetically demanding reactions in biology—phosphomonoester and phosphodiester hydrolysis—with catalytic efficiencies comparable to natural enzymes! 🚀

desB was designed zero-shot with dEVA. No structure prediction, no pre-defined motif, no reaction-intermediates. 🧵

@StanfordBiosci @bioe_stanford @SLAClab
@EPFL @hes_so @simonduerr

[Katie Galloway @GallowayLabMIT]

Could the folding of synthetic gene circuits in 3D shape how genes are expressed? Today @ScienceMagazine we report on the role of gene syntax in shaping feedback between transcriptional activity and genome folding for advanced circuit design🧵 (1/n)

[Katie Galloway @GallowayLabMIT]

So you want to engineer your hiPSCs, but targeting DNA payloads requires multiple slow, inefficient steps for each construct. What if we could accomplish multi-site integration seamlessly? Come hear about STRAIGHT-IN Dual now out at Nature Biomedical Engineering! 🧵

Link at end!

[Xiaojing Gao @SynBioGaoLab]

https://t.co/XV9J396Bmc

[Xiaojing Gao @SynBioGaoLab]

Don't feel bad about missing the mSBW abstract deadline. We have extended it! We also keep the registration fee affordable ($150 for students) so that mammalian synbio-curious trainees can check it out, especially if you are in the Atlanta area. Meeting link below:

[Xiaojing Gao @SynBioGaoLab]

@YanEVgene The use of tTA is certainly shared with CellReadr. To me the key innovation here is the introduction of a "coherent feedforward motif" using tools (e.g., NanoDeg) and designs previous developed by the Segatori lab to further enhance the dynamic range.

[Xiaojing Gao @SynBioGaoLab]

A neat amplification system to improve the limited sensitivity/dynamic range of RADAR https://t.co/k2njIJncwT

[Xiaojing Gao @SynBioGaoLab]

We just updated our Germinal preprint for de novo antibody-like binder design! Featuring additional scFv designs, extensive experimental validation of epitope specificity and polyreactivity, and CryoEM structure courtesy of Jim Zhang and Bing Rao from Feng Liang's lab.

[Xiaojing Gao @SynBioGaoLab]

Having often dealt with binder-limited projects, we sought a more accessible source for nanobodies than yeast display or llama. Here we introduce Germinal, computationally designing antibody-like binders with such a hit rate that only tens need to be screened for each target.

[Xiaojing Gao @SynBioGaoLab]

Abstract due in two days!

[American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) @ChEnected]

Breakthroughs in mammalian synthetic biology happen when bold ideas meet the right audience. Could your research define the next frontier of medicine? Submit your abstract now: https://t.co/Izoc5o2OP7 #mSBW2026 #SyntheticBiology #MammalianSystems #CallForAbstracts

[Xinyi Chen @ChenXinyi666]

So excited that our work on Programmable Macromolecule Delivery via Engineered Trogocytosis is out in @NatureCellBio! Link: https://t.co/jwTNbV9kdB @stanleyqilab @Stanford_ChEMH @bioe_stanford @StanfordBioX A 🧵on our story:

[Xiaojing Gao @SynBioGaoLab]

https://t.co/rGeLpB1zVR

[Xiaojing Gao @SynBioGaoLab]

"Engineering multiple levels of specificity in an RNA viral vector": Jenny finally led our covid-interrupted revision to completion. Thanks to the delay, we managed to incorporate our more recent RNA sensors and protease circuits into the RNA viral vectors

[Xiaojing Gao @SynBioGaoLab]

@biorxivpreprint Higher-order infinitesimal in light of the challenges we are all going through, but still happy that the preprint is out. Missing @ElowitzLab already. Kudos to Michaela and Matthew. Can't have found a more perfect collaborator than Lucy. Thank you all!

[American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) @ChEnected]

Engineering the next frontier of mammalian systems. Accepting abstracts through April 15 - submit yours now: https://t.co/Izoc5o2OP7 #mSBW2026 #SyntheticBiology #MammalianSystems #CallForAbstracts

[Xiaojing Gao @SynBioGaoLab]

@StevenMBanik @noScandineHere Congrats, Steven, Robert, and team! We resonate very much with your philosophy and can't wait to see what ALTER can achieve! By the way, I'm sure @DrBinSquared and @AshAlizadeh are happy to see MARIA put to another exciting use.

[Xiaojing Gao @SynBioGaoLab]

@NornGroup @impetusgrants @Stanford Grateful for the support that makes it possible for us to launch some of the wilder ideas. Stay tuned for the urinary peptide piece :)