Dr. Mian Cao earned his PhD degree in biochemistry from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2009. He subsequently joined Dr. Pietro De Camilli’s lab at Yale University as a postdoctoral associate. He is currently associate research scientist in the Department of Cell Biology at Yale University. His research focuses on the functional relationship of several Parkinson’s disease genes with the endocytic traffic of synaptic vesicles. He has demonstrated that genetic disruption of the function of endophilin, an endocytic protein and the major binding partner of synaptojanin 1 at synapses, results in a major upregulation of Parkin. He is currently investigating disease mechanisms in the autosomal recessive juvenile Parkinsonism due to a mutation in synaptojanin 1.

In 2013, he was the recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Parkinson Disease Association and, in 2014, of a postdoctoral fellowship for basic scientists from the Parkinson Disease Foundation.