Dr. Bao received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics from Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China in 1996. His Ph.D. research was focused on structural analyses of a key metabolic hormone insulin and an enzyme fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase. Shortly after receiving his Ph.D., he became an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 1999, he was awarded the Guest Scientist Scholarship by German Cancer Research Center (DFKZ), Heidelberg, Germany, to work on the signal transduction pathway mediated by the oncoprotein Wnt.
In 2001, he moved to the United States and worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis where he studied molecular and cell biology with a focus on cell-cell adhesion and control of gene expression. He continued this work at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York and he became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine where he studied microbiology with a focus on engineering bacteria to deliver therapeutic agents.
Dr. Bao joined the faculty of the American University of Integrative Sciences in 2019 as a Professor of Biochemistry and Genetics. Through affiliation with several medical schools, he has established a diverse teaching portfolio and taught multiple subjects including biochemistry, genetics, cell biology, physiology, microbiology, and immunology. His teaching philosophy features simplicity and knowledge integration.