Dr Gao obtained his bachelor and doctoral degrees from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China, with three years of his PhD training at The University of Hong Kong partially supported by Dr Cheng Yu Tung Fellowships. He received his research training in the fields of human and mouse genetics. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at U.S National Human Genome Research Institute, he worked as staff scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In 2015, Dr Gao joined The University of Hong Kong as tenure-track Assistant Professor. He is interested in studying cell signaling in development and disease, with focus on elucidating the molecular mechanisms of Wnt/Planar Cell Polarity signaling and a variety of human skeletal and connective tissues disorders.