Prof. Dr. Feng-shan Gao | Animal immunology | Best Research Article Award

Dalian University | China

Prof. Dr. Feng-shan Gao is an accomplished researcher in preventive veterinary medicine whose work spans viral immunology, molecular virology, antigen presentation, host–pathogen interactions, and the development of diagnostic and vaccine-related tools for major animal infectious diseases. His scholarly contribution focuses strongly on swine and feline viral pathogens, with a special emphasis on foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), porcine circoviruses, African swine fever virus, and coronaviruses. Through extensive structural biology research, he has identified novel cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitopes, reconstructed swine leukocyte antigen (SLA) protein complexes, characterized antigen-peptide binding mechanisms, and applied crystallographic and computational modeling tools to explore immune recognition pathways. His research further extends to molecular diagnostics, including duplex fluorescence qPCR assays, genomic characterization of pathogenic viruses, immune-evasion mechanisms, and comparative studies of animal coronaviruses with emerging human viruses. His contributions are published in leading journals such as Cell Research, PLoS Biology, Gene, Virulence, Heliyon, Virus Research, Veterinary Research, and BMC Veterinary Research. Feng-shan Gao has authored 30 Scopus-indexed documents, accumulating 466 Scopus citations from 423 citing documents, with an h-index of 10. On Google Scholar, his citation count is substantially higher (commonly exceeding Scopus metrics), reflecting his wide scientific impact and interdisciplinary collaborations across immunology, virology, and structural biology. His research continues to advance the understanding of viral pathogenesis and T-cell immunity, contributing valuable knowledge for vaccine design and antiviral development. This strong record of high-impact publications, structural immunology breakthroughs, collaborative contributions to viral research, and increasing citation metrics positions him as a prominent candidate for a Best Research Article Award, particularly in fields related to veterinary immunology, structural virology, and molecular diagnostics.

Publication Profile

Scopus

Featured Publications

• Li, Z., Brecher, M., Deng, Y. Q., Zhang, J., Sakamuru, S., Liu, B., … Gao, F. (2017). Existing drugs as broad-spectrum and potent inhibitors for Zika virus by targeting NS2B-NS3 interaction. Cell Research, 27(8), 1046-1064.

• Green, C. M., Li, Z., Smith, A. D., Novikova, O., Bacot-Davis, V. R., Gao, F., … Belfort, M. (2019). Spliceosomal Prp8 intein at the crossroads of protein and RNA splicing. PLoS Biology, 17(10), e3000104.

• Gao, Y. Y., Wang, Q., Li, H. W., Zhang, S., Zhao, J., Bao, D., … Gao, F. S. (2024). Genomic composition and pathomechanisms of porcine circoviruses: A review. Virulence, 15(1), 2439524.

• Gao, Y. Y., Zhang, Z. H., Sang, C. J., Han, Y., Cao, Y. D., Tang, Y., … Gao, F. S. (2025). A new strategy to identify naturally presenting SLA-I bound peptides derived from the O serotype of foot-and-mouth disease virus. Animals, 15(21), 3097.

• Gao, F. S., Zhai, X. X., Jiang, P., Zhang, Q., Gao, H., Li, Z. B., … Zhang, Z. H. (2018). Identification of two novel FMDV cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitopes that can bind six SLA-I proteins. Gene, 653, 91-101.