Baohai Shao received his PhD degree from the Zhejiang University in China in 2002. He then came to the Washington University in St Louis and then to the University of Washington to do a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Jay Heinecke. After completing his postdoctoral training, Dr. Shao was appointed to the faculty in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington, and is now a Research Associate Professor of Medicine.

High-density lipoprotein (HDL), traditionally considered the “good cholesterol,” plays an important role in protecting against atherosclerosis through cholesterol transport and anti-inflammatory functions. However, emerging evidence indicates that HDL function—rather than HDL quantity—is a critical determinant of cardiovascular risk. Dr. Shao’s research focuses on understanding how oxidative modifications and alterations in HDL protein cargo transform HDL into dysfunctional particles that contribute to cardiometabolic disease.

A central area of investigation examines mechanisms that generate dysfunctional HDL, including oxidation mediated by myeloperoxidase (MPO), a macrophage-derived heme enzyme, and modification by reactive carbonyl species implicated in diabetes and vascular disease. These studies have identified complementary biochemical pathways that impair HDL’s protective functions in humans.

Dr. Shao’s laboratory has demonstrated that systemic diseases such as diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and end-stage renal disease profoundly remodel the HDL proteome. Using advanced quantitative proteomics approaches, the group investigates how changes in plasma, HDL, and immune-cell proteomes serve not only as biomarkers of disease but also as potential mediators linking metabolic, inflammatory, and cardiovascular disorders. Recent work explores how proteins originating from extrahepatic tissues, including the lung, associate with HDL and predict cardiovascular outcomes, highlighting HDL as a circulating integrator of organ-to-organ communication.

A major effort of the laboratory is the development of sensitive mass spectrometry–based assays for oxidative protein modifications and plasma and HDL-associated protein biomarkers in translational human studies and mechanistic disease models. The long-term goal is to define how changes in the HDL proteome contribute to atherosclerosis, diabetes, kidney disease, and related inflammatory conditions, and to identify novel targets for cardiovascular risk reduction.

People with diabetes face a substantially increased risk of cardiovascular disease that is not fully explained by traditional lipid measurements. Our research seeks to uncover mechanistic links between diabetes, HDL dysfunction, and cardiovascular risk by identifying specific protein and oxidative changes that impair HDL function. By defining these pathways, we aim to discover biomarkers that improve risk prediction and identify new therapeutic targets to prevent cardiovascular complications in diabetes.