国家高层次青年人才项目获得者，中山大学“百人计划” 中青年杰出人才。2025年9月入职中山一院精准医学研究院。2012年赴瑞典卡罗林斯卡医学院（Karolinska Institutet）攻读博士，获免疫学博士学位（2018）。此后在卡罗林斯卡医学院从事博士后研究并晋升为研究专员（Research Specialist），长期在Buggert教授团队工作。主要从事T淋巴细胞发育与抗病毒免疫研究，聚焦感染与疫苗免疫中的T细胞功能分化、记忆形成及耗竭机制。近年来以第一作者或共同第一作者在Nature Medicine、Nature Immunology、Cell Host & Microbe、Science Immunology、Immunity等国际顶级期刊发表多篇论文，研究成果揭示了疫苗与自然感染诱导的记忆T细胞在新冠病毒及其他病原体感染中的关键保护作用，并对感染后免疫重塑及长新冠机制提供了重要见解。研究工作获得多项欧盟及瑞典国家级科研基金支持，在感染免疫与转化医学领域产生了广泛影响。

• Yu Gao*, Curtis Cai*, Sarah Adamo*,  Elsa Biteus, Habiba Kamal, Lena Dager, Kelly L. Miners, Sian Llewellyn-Lacey, Kristin Ladell, Pragati S. Amratia, Kirsten Bentley, Simon Kollnberger, Jinghua Wu, Mily Akhirunnesa, Samantha A. Jones, Per Julin, Christer Lidman, Richard J. Stanton, Paul A. Goepfert, Michael J. Peluso, Steven G. Deeks, Helen E. Davies, Soo Aleman, Marcus Buggert & David A. Price Identification of soluble biomarkers that associate with distinct manifestations of long COVID, Nature Immunology (IF=28) | Volume 26 | May 2025 | 692–705.

• Thomas R. Müller*, Yu Gao*, Jinghua Wu, Oriana Ribeiro, Puran Chen, Peter Bergman, Ola Blennow, Lotta Hansson, Stephan Mielke, Piotr Nowak, Jan Vesterbacka, Mira Akber, Gunnar Söderdahl, C.I. Edvard Smith, Karin Loré, Margaret Sällberg, Per Ljungman, Hanna M. Ingelman-Sundberg, Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, Anders Österborg, Marcus Buggert, Memory T cells effectively recognize the SARS-CoV-2 hypermutated BA.2.86 variant, Cell Host &Microbe (IF=30.3), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2023.12.010

• Curtis Cai,*,†, Yu Gao,†, Sarah Adamo, Olga Rivera-Ballesteros, Lotta Hansson Anders Österborg, Peter Bergman, Johan K. Sandberg, Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, Niklas K. Björkström, Kristoffer Strålin, Sian Llewellyn-Lacey, David A. Price, Chuan Qin, Alba Grifoni, Daniela Weiskopf, E. John Wherry, Alessandro Sette, Soo Aleman, Marcus Buggert*, SARS-CoV-2 vaccination enhances the effector qualities of spike-specific T cells induced by COVID-19, Science Immunology (IF=17.6), 8 Dec 2023 Vol 8, Issue 90, DOI: 10.1126/sciimmunol.adh0687

• Sarah Adamo*, Yu Gao*, Takuya Sekine, Alessandro Sette, Alba Grifoni, Marcus Buggert, Memory profiles distinguish cross-reactive and virus-specific T cell immunity to mpox, Cell Host &Microbe (IF=31.3), Published: April 24, 2023, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chom.2023.04.015

• Yu Gao*, Arlisa Alisjahbana*, Daryl Zhong Hao Boey, Imran Mohammad, Natalie Sleiers, Joakim Dahlin, Tim Willinger, A single-cell map of vascular and tissue lymphocytes identifies highly proliferative TCF-1+ human innate lymphoid cells. Front. Immunol. (IF=8.8), https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.902881.

• Yu Gao*, Curtis Cai*, David Wullimann, Julia Niessl, Olga Rivera-Ballesteros, Joshua Lange, Ola Blennow, Lotta Hansson, Stephan Mielke, Piotr Nowak, Puran Chen, Mira Akber, Angelica Cuapio Gomez, Takuya Sekine, Gunnar Söderdahl, Anders Österborg, Gordana Bogdanovic, Sandra Muschiol, Fredrika Hellger, Alba Grifoni, Daniela Weiskopf, Alessandro Sette, Karin Loré, Margaret Sällberg Chen, Per Ljungman, Johan K. Sandberg, C. I. Edvard Smith, Peter Bergman, Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, Soo Aleman, Marcus Buggert*， Immunodeficiency syndromes differently impact the functional spectrum of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells elicited by mRNA vaccination, Immunity (IF=32.5), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.immuni.2022.07.005.

• Yu Gao*, Curtis Cai*, Alba Grifoni, Thomas R. Müller, Julia Niessl, Anna Olofsson, Marion Humbert, Lotta Hansson, Anders Österborg, Peter Bergman, Puran Chen, Annika Olsson, Johan K. Sandberg, Daniela Weiskopf, David A. Price, Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, Annika C. Karlsson, Alessandro Sette, Soo Aleman & Marcus Buggert*, Ancestral SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells cross-recognize the Omicron variant. Nature Medicine (IF=82.6), Brief communications article. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01700-x (2022).

• Lisa Blixt, Yu Gao,∗ David Wullimann,∗ Hanna Murén Ingelman-Sundberg, Sandra Muschiol, Katie Healy, Gordana Bogdanovic, Elisa Pin, Peter Nilsson, Christian Kjellander, Alba Grifoni, Alessandro Sette, Margaret Sällberg Chen, Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren, Marcus Buggert, Lotta Hansson,∗∗ and Anders Österborg, Hybrid immunity in immunocompromised patients with CLL after SARS-CoV-2 infection followed by booster mRNA vaccination, Blood (IF=20.3). 2022, doi: 10.1182/blood.2022016815

• Yu Gao, Ruining Liu, Chenfei He, Juan Basile, Mattias Vesterlund, Marie Wahren-Herlenius, Alexander Espinoza, Cassandra Hokka-Zakrisson, Fahad Zadjali, Akihiko Yoshimura, Mikael Karlsson, Berit Carow. and Martin E. Rottenberg, SOCS3 Expression by Thymic Stromal Cells Is Required for Normal T Cell Development, Front. Immunol (IF=8),18 March 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.642173.

• Yu Gao, Juan Ignacio Basile, Cajsa Classon, Dolores Gavier-Widen, Akihiko Yoshimura, Berit Carow, Martin E. Rottenberg，STAT3 expression by myeloid cells is detrimental for the T- cell-mediated control of infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis，Published: January 16, 2018, Plos Pathogens (IF=6.5), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1006809.

• Yu Gao, Honglei Zhao, Peng Wang, Jun Wang, Lili Zou, The roles of SOCS3 and STAT3 in bacterial infection and inflammatory diseases, Scand J Immunol. (IF=2.3) ,2018 Dec;88(6):e12727. doi: 10.1111/sji.12727.

免疫衰老与疾病发生机制；

T细胞对病毒的交叉识别与免疫应答；

mRNA疫苗在免疫缺陷病人中诱导的T细胞免疫应答；

T细胞免疫与新冠后遗症

课题组处于快速组建阶段，目前有博士后研究员两名，毕业于瑞典卡罗林斯卡医学院。

课题组长期招收博士后、博士/硕士研究生和研究助理，欢迎对T细胞免疫，免疫衰老，感染与免疫，临床队列多组学大数据分析等方向感兴趣的同学加入。