Caixia Gao PhD, Professor, Doctoral supervisor

Dr. Gao received her Ph.D. degree from the China Agricultural University in 1997. From 1997 to 2009, she served as a Research Scientist at DLF’s biotechnology group in Denmark, where she worked on plant genetic transformation and molecular biology. Now she is a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research group focuses on developing precision genome editing technologies and establishing foundational methods on using genome editing to breed for new and sustainable crops. She has developed new crops that are more nutritious, disease resistant, and stress tolerant. Her research was selected as one of 2016 MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies and one of the most cited Nature Biotechnology papers over its 20 year history in 2016. Also in 2016, Caixia was selected as one of Nature’s ten science stars of China.


2017-present    Genome Biology Editor

2017-present    The CRISPR Journal Associate Editor-in-chief

2018-present    Science China Life Sciences Editor

2020-present    Journal of Genetics and Genomics Associate Editor-in-chief

2020-presnet    Cell Editor

2020-present    Trends in Biotechnology Editor

2020-present    Trends in Genetics Editor

2020-present    Gene and Genome Editing Editor

Awards & Honors
2023 Cell Press China’s Women in Science Awards
2019-2023 Clarivate Analytics Global "Highly Cited Scientist"
2016-2023 Outstanding Mentor Award of Chinese Academy of Sciences
2019 Science Photo of the Year
2019 National "Ten Thousand People Plan"
2018 Innovative teams in key areas of the innovative talent promotion plan
2017 "Young and Middle-aged Experts with Outstanding Contributions" by the National Ten Thousand Talents Project
2017 National Innovation Award
2017 The 10th Tan Jiazhen Life Science Innovation Award
2016 20 years of Nature Biotechnology bioengineering research
2016 MIT Technology Review's "World's Top 10 Breakthrough Technologies"
2016 Nature “Science stars of China”
2015 Second Prize of Dabeinong Science and Technology Innovation Award
2015 DuPont Young Professor
2013 Yihai Kerry Outstanding Mentor Award
2010 Outstanding technical talents of the Chinese Academy of Sciences