Dr. Ma’s interesting focus on two directions: organism development and signaling transduction; gene expression and metabolism pathway regulation by using synthetic biology. His works have been sponsored by NSFC and 973 programs. He has won two golden medals of International Genetic Engineering Machine Competition (iGEM, a synthetic biology competition) as an instructor of SJTU-BIOX-SHANGHAI team in 2009 and 2010. In 2011, he has won the Best New Biobrick and Device (Asia Jamboree) award and the Sweet Sixteen award (World Jamboree).

The mechanism by which the IHH mutations cause Brachydactly type A1 (BDA1); The role of Wnt, BMP and Hedgehog signaling pathways in the skin and hair follicle stem cell development and diseases; Synthetic biology and the design of functional modules.

1. Sixia Huang#, Xuming Zhu#, Yanfang Liu, Yixin Tao, Guoyin Feng, Lin He, Xizhi Guo*, Gang Ma*. Wls is Expressed in the Epidermis and Regulates Embryonic Hair Follicle Induction in Mice. PLoS ONE (Revised)

2. Hui-Yi Kua#, Huijuan Liu#, Wai Fook Leong#, Lili Li, Deyong Jia, Gang Ma, Yuanyu Hu, Xueying Wang, Jenny F. L. Chau, Ye-Guang Chen, Yuji Mishina, Sharon Boast, James Yeh, Li Xia, Guo-Qiang Chen, Lin He, Stephen P. Goff, and Baojie Li*. c-Abl promotes osteoblast expansion by differentially regulating canonical and non-canonical BMP pathways and p16 INK4a expression. Nature Cell Biology (in press)

3. Gang Ma#, Lili Li#, Yuanyu Hu, Jenny Fung Ling Chau, Bi Jin Au, Deyong Jia, Huijuan Liu, James Yeh, Lin He, Aijun Hao*, and Baojie Li*. Atypical Atm-p53 genetic interaction in osteogenesis is mediated by Smad1 signaling. Journal of Molecular Cell Biology. Journal of Molecular Cell Biology 2012; 4(2):118-20.

4. Ma G, Yu J, Xiao Y, Chan D, Gao B*, Hu J, He Y, Guo S, Zhou J, Zhang L, Gao L, Zhang W, Kang Y, Cheah KS, Feng G, Guo X, Wang Y, Zhou CZ, He L*. INDIAN HEDGEHOG mutations causing brachydactyly type A1 impair Hedgehog signal transduction at multiple levels. Cell Research 2011; 21(9):1343-57.

5. Gao B#, Hu J#, Stricker S, Cheung M, Ma G, Law KF, Witte F, Briscoe J, Mundlos S, He L*, Cheah KS, Chan D*. A mutation in Ihh that causes digit abnormalities alters its signalling capacity and range. Nature 2009; 458, 1196-1200.

6. Ma G, Xiao Y, He L*. Recent progress in the study of Hedgehog signaling. Journal of Genetics and Genomics 2008; 35(3): 129-137.

7. Ma G#, He Z#, Fang W, Tang W, Huang K, Li Z, He G, Xu Y, Feng G, Zheng T, Zhou J, He L*, Shi Y*. The Ser9Gly Polymorphism of the Dopamine D3 Receptor Gene and Risk of Schizophrenia: An Association Study and a large Meta-Analysis. Schizophrenia research 2008; 101:26-35.

8. Ma G#, Shi Y#*, Tang W, He Z, Huang K, Li Z, He G, Feng G, Li H, He L*. An association study between the genetic polymorphisms within TBX1 and schizophrenia in the Chinese population. Neurosci Lett 2007; 425(3):146-150.

# Contributed equally to the paper * Corresponding author