Yaqiang Cao  (曹亚强), Ph.D.

Computational Biology Postdoc at NHLBI/NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, US.

Email: caoyaqiang0410@gmail.com or yaqiang.cao@nih.gov

Brief Research Biograph

Yaqiang started his college education in bioengineering, but he discovered his passion for mathematical modeling and coding while participating in competitions such as CUMCM. This led him to the field of computational biology, where he earned his PhD from the CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology with Dr. Jing-Dong Jackie Han. Currently, he works as a bioinformatics postdoc with Dr.Keji Zhao at the NHLBI/NIH, where he studies the chromatin interaction landscapes of human and mouse immune cells, specifically T cells.

Yaqiang is a bioinformatics expert with over ten years of experience in utilizing and interpreting deep sequencing technologies, including RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, DNase-seq, ATAC-seq, MNase-seq, Hi-C, Hi-TrAC, STARR-seq, 10X scRNA-seq, and etc, to study transcription regulation across various biological processes. During his Ph.D. studies, he focused on investigating the epigenetic roles of human transposable elements. Currently, he is working on unraveling the chromatin interaction patterns of human and mouse cells, with a focus on T cells. By closely collaborating with his wet-lab colleagues, Yaqiang analyzes and integrates sequencing data to gain new biological insights, and develops cutting-edge analysis methods for new chromatin 1D and 3D profiling sequencing protocols.

Yaqiang's early research interests centered on data mining, machine learning from large-scale sequencing data, and developing bioinformatics tools while working in Dr. Han's lab. During his postdoctoral training with Dr. Zhao, his focus shifted towards developing sequencing-based methodologies and studying T-cell immunology.

Yaqiang has published several research articles as the first or co-first author in prominent journals, including Immunity (2024 & 2023[cover]), Nature Cell Biology (2024), Nucleic Acids Research (2023, 2022, 2020), Nature Communications (2022), Blood (2020[Plenary Paper]), Bioinformatics (2020), and Genome Research (2019). Additionally, he has contributed to several other impactful research papers as a collaborator, published in prestigious journals such as Science (2022), Immunity (2022a and b), Nature Cell Biology (2022), Nature Metabolism (2020), Science Advances (2020), Cell Reports (2019), and Cell Research (2015).

Yaqiang actively reviews for several journals, focusing on the topics of bioinformatics and epigenetics, including Bioinformatics, Frontiers in Immunology/Oncology/Bioinformatics/Pharmacology/Genetics, Communication Biology, BMC Genomics, F1000Research, and others, and is dedicated to serving the scientific community.

Yaqiang actively develops and maintains open-source bioinformatics software (cLoops, cLoops2, astroBoy) for NGS data analysis and visualization, gaining wide recognition.

Outside of work, Yaqiang enjoys exploring sports and spending time with family.

Experience and Education Background

Research Interests

Research Publications (full list)

bioRxiv first or co-first preprint

First/co-first Author Papers

Bioinformatics Algorithms/Tools

  1. Cao, Yaqiang, et al. "cLoops2: a full-stack comprehensive analytical tool for chromatin interactions." Nucleic Acids Research 50.1 (2022): 57-71. LINK
  2. Cao, Yaqiang, et al. “Accurate loop calling for 3D genomic data with cLoops.” Bioinformatics 36.3 (2020): 666-675. LINK

Biological Questions Orientated Data Mining

  1. Ma, Fei, et al. Three-dimensional chromatin reorganization regulates B cell development during ageing Nature Cell Biology, 2024 LINK
  2. Liu, Shuai, et al. Regulation of T helper cell differentiation by the interplay between histone modification and chromatin interaction Immunity, 2024, ISSN 1074-7613 LINK
  3. Cao, Yaqiang, et al. "Hi-TrAC detects active sub-TADs and reveals internal organizations of super-enhancers" Nucleic Acids Research (2023): gkad378. LINK
  4. Cui, Kairong, et al. Restraint of IFN-γ expression through a distal silencer CNS–28 for tissue homeostasis Immunity, 56.5 (2023): 944-958. LINK, selected as cover, Preview: To loop or not to loop? CNS-28 is the answer
  5. Zeng, Yingying, et al. “Characterization of functional transposable element enhancers in acute myeloid leukemia.” Science China Life Sciences 63.5 (2020): 675-687. LINK
  6. Cao, Yaqiang, et al. “Widespread roles of enhancer-like transposable elements in cell identity and long-range genomic interactions.” Genome research 29.1 (2019): 40-52. LINK

Sequencing-Based Methods Development

  1. Liu, Shuai, et al. Hi-TrAC reveals division of labor of transcription factors in organizing chromatin loops. Nat Commun 13, 6679 (2022). LINK

Sequencing Data Analysis Collaboration

  1. Zhen, Tao, et al. "RUNX1 and CBFβ-SMMHC transactivate target genes together in abnormal myeloid progenitors for leukemia development." Blood 136.21 (2020): 2373-2385. LINK, selected as Plenary Paper, editor's comment
  2. Han, Mengmeng, et al. "A role for LSH in facilitating DNA methylation by DNMT1 through enhancing UHRF1 chromatin association." Nucleic Acids Research 48.21 (2020): 12116-12134. LINK
  3. Huang, Fei, et al. “BMP2 signalling activation enhances bone metastases of non‐small cell lung cancer.” J Cell Mol Med. 2020; 00: 1– 17. LINK
  4. Wang, Lu, et al. “Activin/Smad2-induced histone H3 Lys-27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) reduction is crucial to initiate mesendoderm differentiation of human embryonic stem cells.” Journal of Biological Chemistry 292.4 (2017): 1339-1350. LINK

Contribution Publications

Softwares

Editorial Services

Peer Reviewer Services

Awards