Yongxin Zhao

Yongxin (Leon) received his BSc in Sun Yat-sen University in China. He then joined the Department of Chemistry in University of Alberta, Canada, and worked on development of directed evolution approaches for improved genetically encoded fluorescent calcium ion and voltage indicators for his PhD. He is the main inventor of GECO and QuasAr families of neural imaging tools. In the Synthetic Neurobiology group, he developed expansion pathology (ExPath). He then went on to start as an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

Publications

Improved immunostaining of nanostructures and cells in human brain specimens through expansion-mediated protein decrowding

Science Translational Medicine | 2024

Valdes PA, Yu CJ*, Aronson J*, Ghosh D, Zhao Y, An B, Bernstock JD, Bhere D, Felicella MM, Viapiano MS, Shah K, Chiocca EA**, Boyden ES** (2024) Improved immunostaining of nanostructures and cells in human brain specimens through expansion-mediated protein decrowding, Science Translational Medicine 16(732):eabo0049. (*, contributed equally; **, contributed equally)

Nanoscale imaging of clinical specimens using conventional and rapid expansion pathology

Nature Protocols | 2020

Bucur O*, Fu F*, Calderon M, Mylvaganam GH, Ly NL, Day J, Watkin S, Walker BD, Boyden ES**, Zhao Y** (2020) Nanoscale imaging of clinical specimens using conventional and rapid expansion pathology, Nature Protocols 15:1649-1672. (*, equal contribution, **, co-corresponding)

Cortical column and whole-brain imaging with molecular contrast and nanoscale resolution

Science | 2019

Ruixuan Gao*, Shoh M. Asano*, Srigokul Upadhyayula*, Igor Pisarev, Daniel E. Milkie, Tsung-Li Liu, Ved Singh, Austin Graves, Grace H. Huynh, Yongxin Zhao, John Bogovic, Jennifer Colonell, Carolyn M. Ott, Christopher Zugates, Susan Tappan, Alfredo Rodriguez, Kishore R. Mosaliganti, Shu-Hsien Sheu, H. Amalia Pasolli, Song Pang, C. Shan Xu, Sean G. Megason, Harald Hess, Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, Adam Hantman, Gerald M. Rubin, Tom Kirchhausen, Stephan Saalfeld, Yoshinori Aso, Edward S. Boyden**, Eric Betzig** (2019) Cortical column and whole-brain imaging with molecular contrast and nanoscale resolution, Science 363(6424):eaau8302. (*, equal contribution, **, co-corresponding)

Expansion microscopy: principles and uses in biological research

Nature Methods | 2018

Wassie AT*, Zhao Y*, Boyden ES (2019) Expansion microscopy: principles and uses in biological research, Nature Methods 16(1):33-41. (*, equal contributors)

Nanoscale imaging of clinical specimens using pathology-optimized expansion microscopy

Nature Biotechnology | 2017

Zhao Y*, Bucur O*, Irshad H, Chen F, Weins A, Stancu AL, Oh EY, DiStasio M, Torous V, Glass B, Stillman IE, Schnitt SJ, Beck AH**, Boyden ES** (2017) Nanoscale imaging of clinical specimens using pathology-optimized expansion microscopy, Nature Biotechnology 35(8):757-764. (*, co-first authors; **, co-corresponding authors)

Protein-retention expansion microscopy of cells and tissues labeled using standard fluorescent proteins and antibodies

Nature Biotechnology | 2016

Tillberg, P.W.*, Chen, F.*, Piatkevich, K.D., Zhao, Y., Yu, C.-C., English, B.P., Gao, L., Martorell, A., Suk, H.-J., Yoshida, F., DeGennaro, E.M., Roossien, D.H., Gong, G., Seneviratne, U., Tannenbaum, S.R., Desimone, R., Cai, D., Boyden, E.S. (2016) Protein-retention expansion microscopy of cells and tissues labeled using standard fluorescent proteins and antibodies, Nature Biotechnology 34:987-992. (*, co-first authors)