Professor Qizhi (Cathy) Yao

Professor Qizhi (Cathy) Yao

Department of Surgery, Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Pathology and Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

Dr. Yao is currently a professor in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Pathology and Immunology at Baylor College of Medicine; a health research scientist at center for translational research on inflammatory diseases at Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, USA.

Dr. Yao earned her medical degree from the Southeast University School of Medicine in China (1986) and doctoral degree from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta Georgia, USA. (1996). After a brief postdoctoral training in Dr. Richard Compans’ lab, she became an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Emory University School of Medicine in 1997. She was then recruited to Baylor College of Medicine as an associate professor in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery, Molecular Virology and Microbiology in 2002, and promoted to a full professor in 2007. 

Dr. Yao has been actively involved in vaccine development for more than 15 years.  She is a member of many professional societies including American Society for Virology (ASV), American Association of Immunologists (AAI) and American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), etc. She is also a member of the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and Dan L Duncan cancer center (DLDCC).  She is one of the pioneer researchers in developing chimeric virus-like particles for HIV mucosal vaccine and pancreatic cancer immunotherapy.  Dr. Yao is currently the Principal Investigator on NIH grants, VA merit grant and several other pilot project grants, and has been collaborating with researchers at various Texas medical center institutes.   She has 196 scientific publications in the fields of Virology, Immunology, and Oncology.  She has also served on editorial board and invited reviewers in several professional journals. Dr. Yao has also served on grants review study sections nationally and internationally. Her research programs include HIV and Chagas Disease vaccine development, pancreatic cancer pathogenesis and immunotherapy.

Updated 28 November 2023