He obtained his Ph.D. from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 1993 and did his postdoctoral training at the University of Minnesota Medical School from 1994 -1997. Then, he joined in the GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Research & Development, USA, and performed basic anti-infective drug discovery. Since 2002, he has joined in the Department of Veterinary Biomedical Science at the University of Minnesota as a faculty member; his research focuses on the functional genomics, molecular and cellular pathogenesis of Staphylococcus aureus, and antibacterial drug discovery."