Dr. Sichen Shao

Biography

Sichen (Susan) Shao, Ph.D., joined Harvard Medical School in 2016. She received her Ph.D. in biological sciences through the NIH graduate partnerships program at Johns Hopkins University. Following her doctoral studies, she performed postdoctoral work at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. In 2024, she became an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The Shao Lab focuses on the studies of cellular mechanisms that oversee the steps of protein biosynthesis, regulate gene expression, and maintain protein homeostasis. A significant aspect of their research is the quality control factors that differentiate rare aberrant products from similar biosynthetic intermediates, which is a fundamental problem in biomedical science. The lab employs biochemical methods to reconstitute quality control pathways that interact with ribosomes during protein synthesis to sort membrane proteins and organelles. By combining experimental and mechanistic structural approaches, they generate molecular-level insights into the physiological processes essential for cell survival, proliferation, and differentiation.

Research Interests

Experience