Siyan Cao, MD PhD – Principal Investigator
Dr. Siyan Cao “Stewart” is a physician scientist in gastroenterology. Siyan was born in Chengdu in Southwestern China. After college at Zhejiang University, he entered the PhD program in Biochemistry at University of Michigan. He then moved to New York where he obtained MD at Columbia University. Afterwards, he completed internal medicine residency at UCSF and gastroenterology fellowship at Washington University. Siyan’s research interests include mucosal immunity, multi-omics of complex human digestive diseases, and biomarker discovery in inflammatory bowel disease. His research is supported by the NIH, Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, American Gastroenterological Association, Doris Duke Foundation, etc. He serves as an Associate Editor for Inflammation and is on the Editorial Board of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. He also serves on the National Scientific Advisory Committee of Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. Outside of work, Siyan enjoys outdoors including hiking and camping with family; he is an ultramarathon runner who loves mountains and trails.
https://gastro.wustl.edu/people/siyan-stewart-cao-md phd/
https://physicians.wustl.edu/people/siyan-cao-md-phd/
https://ultrarunning.com/calendar/runner/show?first_name=Siyan&last_name=Cao
Kaiming Ma – Research Technician II
Kaiming earned his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis. He joined the Cao Lab in 2023 as a founding member. He is interested in mucosal immunity related to inflammatory bowel disease, intestinal infection, and eosinophilic esophagitis. He is highly proficient in technical skills including isolation of mucosal immune cells, flow cytometry/FACS, DNA/RNA purification and PCR, processing of human blood cells and tissue samples, intestinal organoid culture, etc. He enjoys CrossFit in his spare time.
Xin Yao, MD – Visiting Scholar
Xin got her Bachelor’s degree and MD from Zhejiang University (ZJU). She then completed her training in internal medicine and gastroenterology at the First Affiliated Hospital of ZJU, where she stayed as an attending physician in the Division of Gastroenterology. She joined the Cao lab in 2024. Her research focuses on understanding the role of ER stress in innate lymphoid cells in Crohn’s disease-related intestinal fibrosis, with an emphasis on the IRE1-XBP1 pathway. In her free time, she enjoys reading, traveling, and trying different local cuisines.
Yangzhuangzhuang (Echo) Zhu, PhD – Postdoctoral Scholar
Echo earned her Bachelor’s degree from Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, followed by Master’s and PhD from Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Her graduate research focused on the mechanistic role of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in lung cancer and psoriasis. Her work led to 7 first-/co-first-author publications in high impact journals including J Exp Clin Cancer Res. She joined the Cao Lab in 2025 as a postdoctoral research associate. She is interested in MDSCs and innate immunity in inflammatory bowel disease. Outside of work, she enjoys Japanese animations, pop music, and outdoor exercise.