Dr. TONG Yao received his BSc in Biochemistry from Nanjing University in 2009. After graduation, he joined the lab of Prof. WONG Yung Hou at HKUST for his doctoral studies and obtained his PhD degree in Biochemistry in 2014. He then joined IAS HKUST-Scripps R&D laboratory under supervision of Prof. Paul SCHIMMEL (IAS Senior Visiting Member) and Prof. ZHANG Mingjie as a Research Associate. His current research interests focus on new biology of aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases and their potential therapeutic applications.