Dr. Gao is known for her studies in auditory processing in the auditory system of awake marmosets. She obtained her B.A. degree from Inner Mongolia University (2000), M.S. degree from East China Normal University (2004) and Ph.D. from Chinese Academy of Sciences (2009). And then she worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Hong Kong Polytechnic University for two years where she dedicated herself in the study of thalamic neurons and meanwhile awarded "tomorrow's star" by the GlaxoSmithKline, China. In 2011, she went to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and made great achievements in developing the intracellular recording technique in the cortex of awake marmosets. She found the subthreshold mechanisms underlying temporal coding schemes to time-varying stimuli in the auditory cortex of awake primates.  She was awarded W. Barry Wood, Jr. Research Award by Johns Hopkins University School of medicine. At the beginning of 2017, she went back to China. Her research has extended into broader areas including (1) cortical feedback modulation on subcortical regions in awake marmosets; (2) marmoset vocal development and vocal communications; (3) establishment of marmoset models of human mental diseases through viral-based gene editing by CRISPR/Cas9 system, such as autism spectral disorders, anxiety and major depress disorders; (4) development of cutting-edge technologies in awake marmosets, such as flexible wireless multichannel recordings in free moving marmosets; optical imaging based on nanomaterials and so on.