The research of Dr. Zhuohao He focuses on underlying mechanisms about neuropathogenesis in neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). To untangle the questions, he has been developing new tools and disease research animal models with endogenous physiological protein transformed into pathologies as exist in patients’ brains. His group is aiming to using such more disease-relevant models to study the pathogenesis mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases, and identify the biomarkers and targets for early disease diagnoses and interventions.

Dr. He has been devoted to the research about pathological protein transmission in AD, PD and FTLD. His studies have provided insights on three major issues in pathological protein transmission process, including the initial seed formation (Science Translational Medicine, 2023, PMID: 37703352), the seed templating and amplification (Nature Communication, 2020, PMID: 31911587), as well as the subsequent seed spreading (Nature Medicine, 2018, PMID: 29200205; Neuron, 2025, PMID: 40215967).

Dr He earned his B.Sc. in Biotechnology from Wuhan University (2005), followed by his Ph.D. in Neurobiology under the mentorship of Dr. Yizheng Wang from Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) (2012). Then he conducted his postdoctoral research with Drs. Virginia Lee and John Trojanowski at University of Pennsylvania. Since 2020, Dr. He has been leading an independent research group at Interdisciplinary Research Center on Biology and Chemistry (IRCBC), CAS to pursue his continuous interest in neurodegenerative disease research.