Ying Iris Gao PhD

Iris Gao received her Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology from Peking University in 2004. She joined MTSU as a Research Assistant Professor in 2011. Prior to joining MTSU, Dr. Gao had been a Research Scientist at Beijing Genomics Institute. Dr. Gao’s research focuses on various biological and pharmaceutical activities of medicinal plants, such as anti-cancer, antioxidant, cardiovascular protective, neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, and anti-malaria activities for the development of new therapeutic agents. Moreover, she is also interested in the conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants. She has published more than 30 peer-reviewed research articles in Plant Cell, Plant Physiology, Plant Molecular Biology, Scientific Reports, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, International Journal of Oncology, Planta Medica, Journal of Functional Foods, etc. She has filed three international patents of potential therapeutic agents. She has been serving as an Editorial member for Scientific Reports, and a reviewer for Journal of Ginseng Research, Current Drug Targets, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, International Journal of Genomics, Pharmacognosy Research, and Journal of Food Chemistry and Nanotechnology etc.