Principal Investigator and Professor of Chemistry

Office: Chem Bldg 545

2003-2007 B.S.         Nanjing University, CN                              Supervisor: Prof. Jianwei Zhao

2007-2010 M.S.        Xiamen Univerisity, CN                              Supervisor: Prof. Yun-Bao Jiang

2010-2015 Ph.D.       Emory University, US                                 Supervisor: Prof. Vincent P. Conticello

2016-2019 Postdoc  University of California, Berkeley, US         Supervisor: Prof. Ting Xu

Tao grew up in Huaian, Jiangsu province, China. When he learned chemistry at high school, he knew he found his career. Tao studied general chemistry in Nanjing and learned engineering and fluorescence analyses of green fluorescence proteins from Prof. Yun-Bao Jiang in Xiamen. He traveled to Georgia, US, and spent five years in studying rational design of self-assembling collagen-mimetic peptides from Prof. Vincent P. Conticello. After finishing his PhD study, Tao went to the west coast, where he started a brand-new exploration in the design of protein-like random heteropolymers with Prof. Ting Xu. Now, at Xiamen University, Tao and his students develop novel strategies to explore synthetic peptide assemblies with controlled composition, shape, and dynamics. They seek to create smart supramolecular biomaterials to recognize and analyze cancer cells as well as cell-related molecular events within the nanometer to micrometer size regime.