Thomas Tao

About

Pronouns: He/Him/His

Languages: English, Mandarin

Biographical Sketch:

Thomas is a PhD student in Chemical Biology at Columbia University, where he is conducting research at the Kousteni Laboratory (affiliated with the Edward P. Evans Center for Myelodysplastic Syndromes at Columbia University, the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Columbia Stem Cell Initiative) and Cornish Laboratory (affiliated with the Department of Chemistry and Department of Systems Biology at Columbia University).

Previously, Thomas graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Biology (Honors) from Skidmore College. There, he trained as a physical organic chemist scientist at Dr. Aneta Turlik's research lab and completed two major projects focused on physical organic chemistry of intramolecular tandem IDEEAs en route to the synthesis of vindoline and total synthesis of Myrtaceae terpenoids. Also at Skidmore, advised by Dr. Jason Breves, Thomas applied omics to discover a novel osmoregulatory protein and characterized its physiological role and endocrinological regulatory mechanisms.

Currently, as a PhD student at Columbia University, Thomas is co-advised by Drs. Stavroula Kousteni and Virginia W. Cornish at their research labs. There, he is interested in discovering and engineering novel chemistry to translate into novel disease therapeutics; and characterizing the systematic, microenvironment-based, and cellular ontological metabolism to discover novel therapeutics.

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Awards and Honors:

• Departmental Honors in Biology, Skidmore College

• Donald W. Pyle Memorial Award, Skidmore College

• Periclean Honors, Skidmore College

• Phi Beta Kappa, Skidmore College

• Summa Cum Laude, Skidmore College

*All awarded in May of 2024

Selected Works:

• Tao, Y. T., & Breves, J. P. (2024). Hypersalinity Tolerance of Mummichogs (Fundulus heteroclitus): A Branchial Transcriptomic Analysis. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part D: Genomics and Proteomics, 101338.

• Breves, J. P., Posada, M. A., Tao, Y. T., & Shaughnessy, C. A. (2024). Salinity and Prolactin Regulate Anoctamin 1 in the Model Teleost, Fundulus heteroclitus. American Journal of Physiology–Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 327(5), R479–R485.

• Jiao, Z., Jaunich, K. T., Tao, T., Gottschall, O., Hughes, M. M., Turlik, A., & Schuppe, A. W. (2024). Unified Approach to Deamination and Deoxygenation Through Isonitrile Hydrodecyanation: A Combined Experimental and Computational Investigation. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, e202405779.