Ning Tsao, PhD

Medical School Department Pathology and Immunology
Research Program Mechanisms of Cancer Biology Program
Ning Tsao

Researcher Background

Primary Academic Title

Instructor, Department of Pathology & Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine

Training

  • 2007 - 2015: Graduate Student Researcher , Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2016 - 2017: Postdoc , Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2017 - 2019: Postdoc, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN

Education

  • 2015: PhD, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

Research & Selected Publications

Research Interest

I have a broad interest in genome regulation through various cellular mechanisms and how perturbing any of these mechanisms results in genome instability and cancer development. Previously, I focused on the mechanisms of how nucleotide metabolism contributes to DNA damage repair, and the genomic impacts caused by the unregulated nucleotide metabolism. My current research focuses on how RNA and RNA alkylation impact genome stability. Specifically, we have demonstrated a key role in alkylated RNA in activating DNA damage repair (Tsao et al., Mol Cell 2021). My ongoing work is to understand how various types of RNA damage impact genome integrity, and how these mechanisms determine cancer cells’ susceptibility to established therapeutic agents.

YTHDC1 cooperates with the THO complex to prevent RNA-damage-induced DNA breaks.
Authors:

Tsao N, Lombardi PM, Park A, one or more additional authors omitted Mosammaparast N

Journal & Year:

Mol Cell • 2025

TCAF1 promotes TRPV2-mediated Ca2+ release in response to cytosolic DNA to protect stressed replication forks.
Authors:

Kong L, Cheng C, Cheruiyot A, one or more additional authors omitted Tsao N, one or more additional authors omitted You Z

Journal & Year:

Nat Commun • 2024

YTHDC1 cooperates with the THO complex to prevent RNA damage-induced DNA breaks.
Authors:

Tsao N, Olabode J, Rodell R, one or more additional authors omitted Mosammaparast N

Journal & Year:

bioRxiv • 2024

How RNA impacts DNA repair.
Authors:

Tsao N, Ashour ME, Mosammaparast N

Journal & Year:

DNA Repair (Amst) • 2023