Abnormal regulation of protein phosphorylation and its enzyme, kinase, relates to the onset of numerous diseases, most notably cancer. We have introduced several strategies based on chemical proteomics to study phosphorylation signaling network. We have utilized novel soluble nanopolymers for homogeneous phosphopeptide isolation and universal phosphorylation detection. Two mass spectrometry-based proteomic strategies have been devised to identify direct substrates of protein kinases through kinase assay linked phosphoproteomics, and to identify direct upstream kinases via fluorescence complementation mass spectrometry.
Professor Tao received his PhD degree in 2001. Then He got a postdoctoral position in Institute for Systems Biology in 2005. Professor Tao served as a researcher in Purdue University Center for Cancer Research since 2005. He was engaged in teaching and research work in Purdue University since 2006 .His group focuses on the development of novel strategies and reagents to efficiently target and discover proteins of important biological relevance as potential biomarkers. Current projects in his group are: 1. Quantitative and functional proteomics in vitro and in living cells using soluble nanopolymers; 2. Phosphorylation imaging and detection; 3. Molecular signaling in cancer cells: phosphoproteomics. 4. Mapping protein-protein and protein-ligand interaction network. Professor Tao has published over 70 articles, 9 book chapters.