Dr. Rao is a Professor at Tongji Hospital, affiliated with Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. She received her postdoctoral training at The Ohio State University from 2010 to 2013, followed by a second postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Maryland School of Medicine from 2013 to 2016. She then served as an Assistant Professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine from 2016 to 2018 and at Oregon Health & Science University from 2018 to 2020. Her primary research focuses on the immune regulation of cardiovascular diseases, with particular interest in the mechanisms of immune cell activation and vascular remodeling in cardiovascular pathologies. In her free time, she enjoys reading and spending time with her family.