Gao Gao
Head Of Engineering, Cancer Data Science Initiative
New York, New York, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolGao Gao is a computational biologist and engineering leader with over 16 years of experience building production-grade cancer genomics software and data platforms. As Head of Engineering for the Cancer Data Science Initiative at Memorial Sloan Kettering, he blends deep research credentials (PhD in Computer Science) with hands-on development, productizing tools used by clinicians and researchers. He co-leads widely adopted open-source efforts such as cBioPortal and OncoKB, contributing both front-end React work and back-end patient-view integrations that improve data accessibility for cancer genomics. Gao’s background spans academia, industry, and startup formation—he co-founded OncoKB and served as VP of Translational Informatics—giving him a rare mix of translational domain expertise and engineering execution. Based in New York, he is known for turning complex multimodal biomedical data into usable clinical and research workflows, and for quietly driving interoperability across genomics resources.
16 years of coding experience
18 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor & Master Computer Science & Engineering, Bachelor & Master Computer Science & Engineering at Tongji UniversityPhD Computer Science, PhD Computer Science at University of Missouri
Github Skills (13)
javascript10
jspx10
back-end-development10
react10
jsp10
cancer-genomics9
javas8
java8
mobx8
typescript-types7
typescript7
typescripts7
html6
Programming languages (10)
Github contributions (5)
cBioPortal/cbioportal
Oct 2011 - Nov 2022
cBioPortal for Cancer Genomics
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:40 releases, 24 reviews, 3179 commits in 11 years 3 months
Contributions summary:Gao's commits focus on enhancing the cBioPortal's patient view feature. They modified existing JSP files, adding code to display cancer type and clinical data summaries, and updating the patient view to include a navigation system. The contributions involve integrating a new mechanism for switching between patients and samples. The commits also include changes to the download functionality and the integration of a new icon based on the information on the webpage.
precision-medicinesciencecbioportalgenomicscancer
cBioPortal/cbioportal-frontend
Dec 2014 - May 2020
React Frontend of cBioPortal :tada:
Role in this project:Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:19 reviews, 19 commits, 13 PRs in 5 years 5 months
Contributions summary:Gao primarily contributed to the React-based front-end of the cBioPortal project, focusing on UI component updates and bug fixes. Their commits involve modifications to gene lists, testimonials, and end-to-end tests. The user also addressed a specific issue related to query functionality, demonstrating an understanding of the application's data retrieval and display mechanisms.
reactcbioportalreact-frontendmobxfrontend
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