2025:

Gao Z (2025). Fetal and parental genomes offer mechanistic insights into pregnancy loss. Nature, Jun;642(8068):579-581. (News and Views)

Ramos-Almodóvar F, Gao Z, Voight BF, Mathieson I (2025) Methylation-associated mutagenesis underlies variation in the mutation spectrum across eukaryotes. bioRxiv 

Wade AN, Guare L, Hayat M, Straub P., Gao Z, Medici M, Teumer A, Davis LL, Ramsay M, Ritchie MD, Penn Medicine BioBank., Cappola A. R. (2025) Strength of genetic associations with thyrotropin values differs between populations with similarity to African and European reference populations. Thyroid, 2025 Feb;35(2):131-142.

2024:

Gao Z. (2024). Unveiling recent and ongoing adaptive selection in human populations. PLoS biology, 22(1), e3002469. 

Antonio ML*, Weiß CL*, Gao Z*, Sawyer S*, ..., Coppa A,  Pinhasi R, Pritchard JK (2022) Stable population structure in Europe since the Iron Age, despite high mobility. eLife, 13, e79714. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.79714 (*co-first authors)

IGVF Consortium (2024) , Deciphering the impact of genomic variation on function . Nature, 2024 Sep;633(8028):47-57. 

2023:

Gao Z, Zhang Y, Cramer N, Przeworski M, Moorjani P (2023) Limited role of generation time changes in driving the evolution of the mutation spectrum in humans. eLife 2023;12:e81188. Featured in eLife Digest.

Moots HM, Antonio M, Sawyer S, Spence JP, Oberreiter V, Weiß CL, Lucci M, Cherifi YMS, ..., Gao Z‡, Fantar M‡, Coppa A‡, Pritchard JK‡, Pinhasi R‡. A genetic history of continuity and mobility in the Iron Age central Mediterranean. Nat Ecol Evol. 2023 Sep;7(9):1515-1524. doi: 10.1038/s41559-023-02143-4. Epub 2023 Aug 17. PMID: 37592021. (‡senior authors)

2019:

Antonio ML*, Gao Z*, Moots HM*, et al., Coppa A, Pinhasi R, Pritchard JK (2019) Ancient Rome: a genetic crossroads of Europe and the Mediterranean. Science. 366(6466): 708-714. *co-first authors

Calderon D, Nguyen MLT, Mezger A, Kathiria A, Nguyen V, Lescano N, Wu B, Trombetta J, Ribado JV, Knowles DA, Gao Z, Parent AV, Burt TD, Anderson MS, Criswell LA, Greenleaf WJ, Marson A, and Pritchard JK (2019) Landscape of stimulation-responsive chromatin across diverse human immune cells. Nature Genetics 51(10): 1494–1505.

Sasani TA, Pedersen BS, Gao Z, Baird L, Przeworski M, Jorde LB, and Quinlan AR (2019) Large, three-generation human families reveal post-zygotic mosaicism and variability in germline mutation accumulation. eLife 2019;8:e46922.

Gao Z†, Moorjani P, Sasani, T, Pedersen, B, Quinlan, A, Jorde L, Amster G, and Przeworski M† (2019) Overlooked roles of DNA damage and maternal age in generating human germline mutations. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 116(19): 9491-9500.

Stahlschmidt M, Collin TC, Fernandes D, Bar-Oz G, Belfer-Cohen A, Gao Z, Jakeli N, Matskevich Z, Meshveliani T, Pritchard J, McDermott F, and Pinhasi R (2019) Ancient Mammalian and Plant DNA from Late Quaternary Stalagmite Layers at Solkota Cave, Georgia. Scientific Reports 9:6628.

 2018:

Glassberg EC*†, Gao Z*†, Harpak A, Lan X, and Pritchard JK (2018) Evidence for weak selective constraint on human gene expression. Genetics 211(2): 757-772. *co-first authors

2017:

Harpak A, Lan X, Gao Z, Pritchard J (2017) Frequent non-allelic gene conversion on the human lineage and its effect on the divergence of gene duplicates. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 114 (46): e9763-9764.

Amorim CE, Gao Z, Baker Z, Diesel J, Simons Y, Haque I, Pickrell J, Przeworski M (2017) The population genetics of human disease: the case of recessive, lethal mutations. PLoS Genet 13 (9): e1006915.

2016:

Moorjani P*, Gao Z*, and Przeworski M (2016) Human germline mutation and the erratic evolutionary clock. PLoS Biol 14(10): e2000744. *co-first authors

Field Y, Boyle E, Telis N, Gao Z, Gaulton K, Golan D, Yengo L, Rocheleau G, Froguel P, McCarthy M, Pritchard J (2016) Detection of human adaptation during the past 2,000 years. Science 354(6313):760-764.

Gao Z†, Wyman MJ, Sella G, and Przeworski M (2016) Interpreting the dependence of mutation rates on age and time. PLoS Biol 14(1): e1002355.

2015 and earlier:

Gao Z†, Waggoner D, Stephens M, Ober C, and Przeworski M (2015) An estimate of the average number of recessive lethal mutations carried by humans. Genetics 199(4):1243-1254.

Gao Z†, Przeworski M, and Sella G (2015) Footprints of ancient-balanced polymorphisms in genetic variation data from closely related species. Evolution 69(2):431-446.

Ségurel L, Gao Z, and Przeworski M (2013) Ancestry runs deeper than blood: the evolutionary history of ABO points to cryptic variation of functional importance. Bioessays 35:862-867.

Leffler EM*, Gao Z*, Pfeifer S*, Ségurel L*, Auton A, Venn O, Bowden R, Bontrop R, Wall JD, Sella G, Donnelly P, McVean G, and Przeworski M (2013) Multiple instances of ancient balancing selection shared between humans and chimpanzees. Science 339:1578-1582. *co-first authors

Wang L, Dong J, Gao Z, and Liu D (2012) The Arabidopsis gene hypersensitive to phosphate starvation 3 encodes ethylene overproduction 1. Plant Cell Physiol 53(6):1093-1105.