Ya-Xiong Tao joined the Auburn University College of
Veterinary Medicine in 2004 and is currently a Professor of Physiology at the
Department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology. He earned his Ph.D. from
the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. He
completed his post-doctoral training at the University of Louisville with Dr.
Ch. V. Rao, and at the University of Iowa with Dr. Deborah L. Segaloff. He was
an Assistant Research Scientist at the Department of Physiology and Biophysics
at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine before joining Auburn
University as an Assistant Professor. He received the 2015 Zoetis Award for
Research Excellence, the L.G. Wolfe
Award for Excellence in Graduate Instruction in 2011, and Outstanding Faculty in
Graduate Teaching Award in 2024 from Auburn University College of Veterinary
Medicine. He was elected a member of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor
Society, in 2023, and an Honorary Member of the National Academy of Medicine of
Mexico in 2024. Research in his lab is directed to elucidate the
structure-function relationships of G protein-coupled receptors, especially the
neural melanocortin receptors melanocortin-3 and -4. He has
published 150 papers and edited or co-edited 10 books.
