Wenjing Gao

Research Professor
wenjinggao@bjmu.edu.cn
Xueyuan Road 38, Haidian District, Beijing, China
Peking University

Personal profile

Dr. Wenjing Gao is a Research Professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Peking University. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Maternal and Child Health from the School of Public Health, Peking University in 2001 and her PhD in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the same school in 2006, under the supervision of Professor Liming Li. Her main research interests include chronic disease epidemiology, genetic epidemiology, and twin studies. From 2009 to 2010 she was a visiting scholar and postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Environment and Population Health, Griffith University (Australia), supervised by Professor Cordia Chu.

She serves on the editorial board of the national planning textbook Epidemiology (9th edition, People’s Medical Publishing House) and is deputy chief editor of the accompanying Epidemiology Practical Tutorial; she is also deputy editor of Introduction to Public Health (Peking University Medical Press). She teaches courses including Epigenetic Epidemiology and Epidemiological Research Methods III: Branches of Epidemiology, and has led five teaching research projects.

Dr. Gao has been principal investigator or co-investigator on more than 20 research projects, including grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and has published over 80 papers as first or corresponding author. Her work has appeared in internationally recognized journals such as BMJ, Molecular Biomedicine, BMC Medicine, Hypertension, Diabetes, and Ageing Cell. She was also nominated to the board of the International Society for Twin Studies in 2025.

Her professional and academic service includes: Deputy secretary-general and standing committee member, grassroots tuberculosis prevention and control professional committee, Chinese anti-tuberculosis association; member of question development expert committee, national medical examination center; communication review expert, degree and graduate education development center, ministry of education; deputy director, health statistics and big data application professional committee, Beijing preventive medicine association; standing committee member, epidemiology professional committee, Beijing preventive medicine association; and member of think tank council, Beijing center for preventive medicine research. She is also a member of the editorial boards of Chinese Journal of Epidemiology, Capital Journal of Public Health, Preventive Medicine Information, and Public Health & Health Policy.

Her teaching and research achievements have been recognized by multiple awards, including a National First-Class Online Undergraduate Course, the Second Prize in Science and Technology from the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, the Capital Frontier Academic Achievement, Beijing Association for Science and Technology, the Teaching Excellence Award, Peking University Health Science Center, and the Outstanding Female Faculty from Peking University Health Science Center.

Main research directions

Dr. Gao is an epigenetic epidemiologist specializing in chronic diseases and twin methods. Under the guidance of Professor Liming Li, she played a pivotal role as the coordinator in the establishment of the Chinese National Twin Registry (CNTR) and a cohort study involving twin populations. The CNTR has successfully recruited over 120,000 twins across 11 provinces and cities, making it the largest twin cohort in Asia. Her research, based on the CNTR, primarily investigate the roles of genetic predispositions and environmental exposures in regulating DNA methylation and influencing the onset of cardiometabolic diseases. Her scholarly contributions include over 80 publications, where she serves either as the first or corresponding author. Notably, she is the only academic from China to be nominated as a candidate for a Board member position in the International Society for Twin Studies (ISTS) for 2025, highlighting her exceptional contributions to the field.

Representative scientific research projects

1. National Natural Science Foundation of China General Project, 82373659, Longitudinal Twin Study on Leading Lifestyles, DNA Methylation, and Long-term Blood Pressure Variability, 2024/01-2027/12

2. National Natural Science Foundation of China General Project, 82073633, Inference about Causation Between DNA Methylation and Blood Pressure: a longitudinal twin study, 2021/01-2024/12

3. National Natural Science Foundation of China General Project, 81573223, DNA Methylation Comparison Study in Twins Discordant for Hypertension, 2016/01-2019/12

4. National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Project, 81202264, Environmental Risk Factor Study of Cardiovascular Diseases Based on Twins Reared Apart and Together, 2013/01-2015/12

5. National Key Research and Development Project "Reproductive Health & Maternal and Child Health Security" Key Special Project, 2023YFC2705900, Mechanism, Prediction, and Intervention Strategies of Adverse Maternal and Fetal Outcomes in Twin Pregnancies, 2023/12-2026/11

6. Special Fund for Health Scientific Research in Public Welfare, 201502006, Special Population Cohort Study in Environmental Epidemiology of China, 2015/09-2018/09

7. Project of the National Terminology Committee for Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Research on the Construction of a Timeline for Curriculum Ideology and Politics in Epidemiology, 2025/06-2026/06

8. Project of the National Terminology Committee for Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Standardization of Epidemiology Terminology, 2022/09-2022/12

9. Educational and Teaching Research Project of Peking University Health Science Center, Research on the Construction of an Evaluation Index System for Curriculum Ideology and Politics in Epidemiology, 2024/10-2026/10

10. Educational and Teaching Research Project of Peking University Health Science Center, Research on the Construction of a Curriculum Ideology and Politics Resource Library for Epidemiology, 2021/10-2023/10

10 representative papers

1. Cao H, Jiang Z, Cao W, Lv J, Yu C, Huang T, Sun D, Liao C, Pang Y, Hu R, Gao R, Yu M, Zhou J, Wu X, Liu Y, Gao W*, Li L*. Association between cardiovascular health and epigenetic aging: a twin study. Clin Epigenetics. 2026 Jan 5;18(1):23.

2. Hong X, Miao K, Cao W, Lv J, Yu C, Huang T, Sun D, Liao C, Pang Y, Hu R, Pang Z, Yu M, Wang H, Wu X, Liu Y, Gao W*, Li L. Longitudinal changes in the genetic and environmental influences on DNA methylation linked to obesity measures: a 5-year twin study. Mol Biomed. 2025 Nov 3;6(1):94.

3. Hong X, Cao H, Cao W, Lv J, Yu C, Huang T, Sun D, Liao C, Pang Y, Hu R, Gao R, Yu M, Zhou J, Wu X, Liu Y, Yin S, Gao W*, Li L*. Trends of genetic contributions on epigenetic clocks and related methylation sites with aging: A population-based adult twin study. Aging Cell. 2025 Mar;24(3):e14403.

4. Miao K, Liu S, Cao W, Lv J, Yu C, Huang T, Sun D, Liao C, Pang Y, Hu R, Pang Z, Yu M, Wang H, Wu X, Liu Y, Gao W*, Li L*. Five years of change in adult twins: longitudinal changes of genetic and environmental influence on epigenetic clocks. BMC Med. 2024 Jul 10;22(1):289.

5. Miao K, Hong X, Cao W, Lv J, Yu C, Huang T, Sun D, Liao C, Pang Y, Hu R, Pang Z, Yu M, Wang H, Wu X, Liu Y, Gao W*, Li L*. Association between epigenetic age and type 2 diabetes mellitus or glycemic traits: A longitudinal twin study. Aging Cell.2024Jul;23(7):e14175.

6. Hong X, Miao K, Cao W, Lv J, Yu C, Huang T, Sun D, Liao C, Pang Y, Pang Z, Yu M, Wang H, Wu X, Liu Y, Gao W*, Li L*. Association between DNA methylation and blood pressure: A longitudinal twin study of 5-year. Hypertension 2023, 80(1): 169-181.

7. Hong X, Wu Z, Cao W, Lv J, Yu C, Huang T, Sun D, Liao C, Pang Y, Pang Z, Cong L, Wang H, Wu X, Liu Y, Gao W*, Li L*. Longitudinal association of DNA methylation with type 2 diabetes and glycemic traits: A 5-year cross-lagged twin study. Diabetes 2022, 71(12):2804-2817.

8. Zheng K, Gao W*, Cao W, Lv J, Yu C, Wang S, Huang T, Sun D, Liao C, Pang Y, Pang Z, Yu M, Wang H, Wu X, Dong Z, Wu F, Jiang G, Wang X, Liu Y, Deng J, Lu L, Li L*. Education, income, and obesity: A nationwide Chinese twin study. Obesity (Silver Spring) 2022, 30(4):931-942.

9 Xi Y, Gao W*, Zheng K, Lv J, Yu C, Wang S, Huang T, Sun D, Liao C, Pang Y, Pang Z, Yu M, Wang H, Wu X, Dong Z, Wu F, Jiang G, Wang X, Liu Y, Deng J, Lu L, Cao W*, Li L. Overweight and risk of type 2 diabetes: a prospective Chinese twin study. Diabetes metab 2022, 48(3): 101278.

10. Gao W, Lv J, Pang Y, Li L*. Role of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic infections in covid-19 pandemic. BMJ 2021, 375:n2342.

（* co-corresponding author）