Guo,Yong -School of Medicine, Tsinghua University

Micro-nano Medicine & Tissue Engineering

Guo,Yong

Professor, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University

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Tel: +86-10-62783960
E-mail: yongguo@tsinghua.edu.cn
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Engaged in the research of diagnostic technologies and their clinical applications in major diseases

Dr. Yong Guo, professor of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua University. Beijing Science and Technology Rising Star, In Vitro Diagnosis Industry Leader, member of the Academic Committee of the Key Laboratory of the National Medical Products Administration, medical device technical review expert of the National Medical Products Administration, and member of the National Biochip Standardization Technical Committee. He received a bachelor’s degree from Peking University in 2001 and a doctoral degree from Tsinghua University in 2006. He was a visiting scholar at Harvard University from 2012 to 2014. He has engaged in the research of diagnostic technologies and their clinical applications in major diseases. He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers; participated in the translation or edition of 4 books; and is an author of more than 40 granted patents, 4 approved national standards, 3 approved copyright certificates. Translation of his research work has yielded diagnostic products that have obtained 5 Chinese medical device approvals; 5 EU CE certifications; and awards including National Key New Products of China, In Vitro Diagnostic Outstanding Innovative Product Gold Award, and Beijing Independent Innovation Product. He has directed projects funded by the Key Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology and National Natural Science Foundation of China.

For the precise diagnosis of major diseases and to promote the development of precision medicine, Dr. Guo has focused on developing innovative technologies such as digital PCR and discovering new molecular markers.

Digital PCR is a critical equipment for precision medicine. Dr. Guo conducted systematic innovation research in digital PCR field, which has yielded 29 patents that have been granted in China and the United States, and 4 products (2 of them registered with NMPA), including the first digital PCR product that is sold outside China. These products have twice received the Gold Award for Excellent Innovative Products of In Vitro Diagnostics in China.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus based on digital PCR has been widely accepted, and Dr. Guo has published a series of research articles in this field. Research translation has been achieved, and the product is the first digital PCR-based SARS-CoV-2 detection reagent approved by NMPA. It is also the world's first officially approved infectious disease-detection product that uses digital PCR technology. This product has been used by major institutions of COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Guo used this product to assist in the development of SARS-CoV-2 national nucleic acid reference materials. The product was chosen for the evaluation of 4 COVID-19 drugs and 2 vaccines. Dr. Guo’s work has received wide media coverage and was reported by media.

Based on the gene chip technology, Dr. Guo discovered a group of microRNAs for effective diagnosis and prognosis of esophageal cancer, which was the first microRNA-related study in the field of esophageal cancer. He also discovered a group of microRNAs related to early diagnosis of lung cancer and microRNAs that promote hepatitis B virus expression and replication. He developed gene chip-based techniques for mycobacterial species identification (17 mycobacteria) and detection of multidrug (rifampicin and isoniazid)-resistant tuberculosis, which earned 2 NMPA medical device registrations.

With the approval from Tsinghua University, some of Dr. Guo’s research have been commercialized, and the products have been widely used.

1.Tan C, Yan Y, Guo N, Wang F, Wang S, Zhu L, Wang Y, Ma Y*, Guo Y*. A single-tube multiplex digital PCR assay for molecular diagnosis and prediction of severity of spinal muscular atrophy. Analytical Chemistry, 2022, DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.1c04403.

2.Tan C, Fan D, Wang N, Wang F, Wang B, Zhu L, Guo Y*. Applications of digital PCR in COVID-19 pandemic. View, 2021, 2: 20200082.

3.Yu F, Yan L, Wang N, Yang S, Wang L, Tang Y, Gao G, Wang S, Ma C, Xie R, Wang F, Tan C, Zhu L, Guo Y*, Zhang F*. Quantitative detection and viral load analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in infected patients. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2020, 71(15): 793-798.

4.Zhu X, Liu B, Su S, Wang B, Bai Y, Huang H, Liu X, Cheng X, Wang X, Zhu L, Yang W, Gao N, Jing G*, Guo Y*. A “quasi” confocal droplet reader based on laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) cytometry for highly-sensitive and contamination-free detection. Talanta, 2020, 206: 120200.

5.Su S, Jing G, Zhang M, Liu B, Zhu X, Wang B, Fu M, Zhu L, Cheng J, Guo Y*. One-step bonding and hydrophobic surface modification method for rapid fabrication of polycarbonate-based droplet microfluidic chips. Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, 2019, 282: 60-68.

6.Tan C, Chen X, Wang F, Wang D, Cao Z, Zhu X, Lu C, Yang W, Gao N, Gao H, Guo Y*, Zhu L*. A multiplex droplet digital PCR assay for non-invasive prenatal testing of fetal aneuploidies. Analyst, 2019, 144(7): 2239-2247.

7.Wang F, Zhu L, Liu B, Zhu X, Wang N, Deng T, Kang D, Pan J, Yang W, Gao H*, Guo Y*. Noninvasive and accurate detection of hereditary hearing loss mutations with buccal swab based on droplet digital PCR. Analytical Chemistry, 2018, 90(15): 8919-8926.

8.Tan X, Qin W, Zhang L, Hang J, Chen Z, Li B, Zhang C, Wan J, Zhou F, Shao K, Sun Y, Wu J, Zhang X, Qiu B, Li N, Shi S, Feng X, Zhao S, Wang Z, Zhao X, Yu Z, Mitchelson K, Cheng J, Guo Y*, He J*. A 5-microRNA signature for lung squamous cell carcinoma diagnosis and hsa-miR-31 for prognosis. Clinical Cancer Research, 2011, 17(21): 6802-6811.

9.Guo H, Liu H, Mitchelson K, Luo M, Sun Y, Xie L, Zhang L, Lu Y, Zhou Y, Guo Y*, Cheng J*. MicroRNAs-372/373 promote the expression of hepatitis B virus through the targeting of nuclear factor I/B. Hepatology, 2011, 54(3): 808-819.

10.Zhu L, Jiang G, Wang S, Wang C, Li Q, Yu H, Zhou Y, Zhao B, Huang H, Xing W, Mitchelson K, Cheng J, Zhao Y*, Guo Y*. Biochip system for rapid and accurate identification of mycobacterial species from isolates and sputum. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 2010, 48(10): 3654-3660.

Awards and honors

Science and Technology Star of Beijing

In Vitro Diagnosis Industry Leader Award

National Key New Products

Beijing New Technologies and New Products

In Vitro Diagnosis Outstanding Innovation Products

Courses

Engineering for Translational Medicine

Biomedical Analysis – Microdevices and Reagents

Human Anatomy and Physiology

Other positions

Member, National Biochip Standardization Technical Committee

Member, Committee of In Vitro Diagnostic Reagent Quality Evaluation Key Laboratory, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control

Member, External Experts for Medical Device Evaluation, National Medical Products Administration

Editorial board member, Infectious Microbes & Diseases

Editorial board member, Scientific Reports