Sichen (Susan) Shao

Sichen (Susan) Shao, Ph.D., joined Harvard Medical School in 2016. Susan received her Ph.D. in biological sciences from the NIH graduate partnerships program with Johns Hopkins University. She then performed postdoctoral work at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK.

The Shao Lab studies cellular mechanisms that surveil different steps of protein biosynthesis to regulate gene expression and maintain protein homeostasis. How quality control factors distinguish rare aberrant products from similar biosynthetic intermediates is a fundamental problem in biomedical science. The Shao Lab biochemically reconstitutes quality control pathways that act on ribosomes during protein synthesis and that sort membrane proteins to different organelles. Combining these experimental systems with mechanistic and structural approaches generates molecular-level insights into physiological processes essential for cell survival, proliferation, and differentiation.

Companies

• Associate Professor of Cell Biology Harvard Medical School (2022)
• Assistant Professor of Cell Biology Harvard Medical School (2016 — 2022)
• Junior Research Fellow St John's College, Cambridge (2013 — 2016)
• Postdoctoral Researcher MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (2011 — 2016)
• Predoctoral IRTA Fellow National Institutes of Health (2008 — 2011)

Education

• PhD The Johns Hopkins University (2008 — 2011)
• BSE Princeton University (2004 — 2008)