John Ngo | Profiles RNS

John Ngo, PhD

Associate Professor

Boston University College of Engineering

Biomedical Engineering

PhD, California Institute of Technology
BA, University of California, Santa Barbara

Websites

	BU College of Engineering
	Google Scholar
	Ngo Lab
	BU Nanotechnology Innovation Center
	BU Center for Multiscale & Translational Mechanobiology
	BU Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering

ORCID : 0000-0003-3508-1915

I was the first my family to finish high school and the first to earn a Ph.D. My training in research began at UC Santa Barbara, where I characterized enzymes involved in biosilica formation in the “orange puffball sponge” Tethya aurantium. As a graduate student at Caltech, I developed cell-targeted methods to track de novo protein synthesis in neurons, tissues, and in vivo. After my Ph.D., I trained with Roger Tsien on probe development for imaging cells via correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM). At Boston University, my lab investigates mechanisms of signal transduction at cell-cell interfaces. Our current efforts are focused on Notch signal transduction, in which we seek to understand how mechanical tension is delivered to and sensed by Notch receptors for the regulation their protease sensitivity and signaling activities. Students from the lab have received several awards and honors, including the BME Thesis of the Year Award and the College of Engineering's Earle and Mildred Bailey Memorial Award, among others.

BU Research

Integrative Approaches for Probing Cell Mechanotransduction in Health and Disease
01/01/2025 - 11/30/2029 (PI)
NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences
2R35GM128859-06

PROTEASE-ACTIVATED ANTIBODIES FOR TUMOR-SELECTIVE NOTCH-1 INHIBITION
02/01/2025 - 01/31/2026 (PI)
Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation

Integrative Approaches for Probing Cell Mechanotransduction in Health and Disease
08/23/2018 - 07/31/2024 (PI)
NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences
5R35GM128859-05

New Probe and Methods for Correlated LM & EM
08/17/2017 - 08/23/2018 (Subcontract PI)
University of California, San Diego NIH NIGMS
2R01GM086197-09A1

Title

Yr	Title	Project-Sub Proj	Pubs

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

iCite Website Copy PMIDs To Clipboard

Kuffner CJ, Marzilli AM, Ngo JT. RNA-stabilized coat proteins for sensitive and simultaneous imaging of distinct single mRNAs in live cells. Nat Methods. 2025 Sep 22.View Related Profiles.

Marzilli, Alexander
Ngo, John

PMID: 40983766

Le Q, Ngo JT. Protease-Containing Nanobodies for Detecting and Manipulating Intracellular Antigens Using Antiviral Drugs. ACS Chem Biol. 2025 Jun 20; 20(6):1145-1152. PMID: 40353866; PMCID: PMC12181063; DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.5c00176;

Tran JC, Kuffner CJ, Marzilli AM, Miller RE, Silfen ZE, McMahan JB, Sloas DC, Chen CS, Ngo JT. Fluorescein-based SynNotch adaptors for regulating gene expression responses to diverse extracellular and matrix-based cues. Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 20; 16(1):852.View Related Profiles.

Marzilli, Alexander
Chen, Christopher
Ngo, John

PMID: 39833147; PMCID: PMC11756391; DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56148-7;

Kuffner CJ, Marzilli AM, Ngo JT. RNA-Stabilized Coat Proteins for Sensitive and Simultaneous Imaging of Distinct Single mRNAs in Live Cells. bioRxiv. 2024 Nov 21.View Related Profiles.

Marzilli, Alexander
Ngo, John

PMID: 39605486; PMCID: PMC11601628; DOI: 10.1101/2024.11.21.624393;

Tran JC, Kuffner CJ, Marzilli AM, Miller RE, Silfen ZE, McMahan JB, Sloas DC, Chen CS, Ngo JT. Fluorescein-Based SynNotch Adaptors for Regulating Gene Expression Responses to Diverse Extracellular Cues. bioRxiv. 2024 Jun 12.View Related Profiles.

Marzilli, Alexander
Ngo, John

PMID: 38915575; PMCID: PMC11195177; DOI: 10.1101/2024.06.12.598538;

Adams SR, Mackey MR, Ramachandra R, Deerinck TJ, Castillon GA, Phan S, Hu J, Boassa D, Ngo JT, Ellisman MH. Fe-TAMLs as a new class of small molecule peroxidase probes for correlated light and electron microscopy. bioRxiv. 2023 Oct 04. PMID: 37662194; PMCID: PMC10473768; DOI: 10.1101/2023.08.25.554352;

Tague EP, McMahan JB, Tague N, Dunlop MJ, Ngo JT. Controlled Protein Activities with Viral Proteases, Antiviral Peptides, and Antiviral Drugs. ACS Chem Biol. 2023 May 19; 18(5):1228-1236.View Related Profiles.

Ngo, John
Dunlop, Mary

PMID: 37140437; PMCID: PMC10501127; DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.3c00138;

Tague EP, McMahan JB, Tague N, Dunlop MJ, Ngo JT. Controlled protein activities with viral proteases, antiviral peptides, and antiviral drugs. bioRxiv. 2023 Feb 27.View Related Profiles.

Ngo, John
Dunlop, Mary

PMID: 36909459; PMCID: PMC10002686; DOI: 10.1101/2023.02.27.530290;

Sloas DC, Tran JC, Marzilli AM, Ngo JT. Tension-tuned receptors for synthetic mechanotransduction and intercellular force detection. Nat Biotechnol. 2023 Sep; 41(9):1287-1295.View Related Profiles.

Marzilli, Alexander
Ngo, John

PMID: 36646932; PMCID: PMC10499187; DOI: 10.1038/s41587-022-01638-y;

Li HS, Wong NM, Tague E, Ngo JT, Khalil AS, Wong WW. High-performance multiplex drug-gated CAR circuits. Cancer Cell. 2022 Nov 14; 40(11):1294-1305.e4.View Related Profiles.

Khalil, Ahmad
Ngo, John
Wong, Wilson

PMID: 36084652; PMCID: PMC9669166; DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2022.08.008;

Showing 10 of 27 results. Show More

Marzilli AM, McMahan JB, Ngo JT. Precision control of intrabodies in live cells. Nat Methods. 2020 03; 17(3):259-260.View Related Profiles.

Marzilli, Alexander
Ngo, John

PMID: 32076290; DOI: 10.1038/s41592-020-0767-2;

Li H-S, Wong NM, Tague E, Ngo JT, Khalil AS, Wong WW. Engineering clinically-approved drug gated CAR circuits. Biorxiv. 2020.

Boassa D, Lemieux SP, Lev-Ram V, Hu J, Xiong Q, Phan S, Mackey M, Ramachandra R, Peace RE, Adams SR, Ellisman MH, Ngo JT. Split-miniSOG for Spatially Detecting Intracellular Protein-Protein Interactions by Correlated Light and Electron Microscopy. Cell Chem Biol. 2019 10 17; 26(10):1407-1416.e5. PMID: 31378710; PMCID: PMC6800643; DOI: 10.1016/j.chembiol.2019.07.007;

Boassa D, Ngo JT, Mackey MR, Ramachandra R, Deerinck TJ, Ellisman MH, Adams SR. New Molecular Tools for Protein Detection and Dynamics in Electron Microscopy. Microscopy and Microanalysis. 2019; 25(S2).

Tague EP, Dotson HL, Tunney SN, Sloas DC, Ngo JT. Chemogenetic control of gene expression and cell signaling with antiviral drugs. Nat Methods. 2018 07; 15(7):519-522. PMID: 29967495; PMCID: PMC7439232; DOI: 10.1038/s41592-018-0042-y;

Ngo JT, Adams SR, Deerinck TJ, Boassa D, Rodriguez-Rivera F, Palida SF, Bertozzi CR, Ellisman MH, Tsien RY. Click-EM for imaging metabolically tagged nonprotein biomolecules. Nat Chem Biol. 2016 06; 12(6):459-65. PMID: 27110681

Rodriguez EA, Ngo JT, Palid SF, Adams SR, Mackey MR, Ramachandra R, Ellisman MH, Tsien RY. New Molecular Tools for Light and Electron Microscopy. Microscopy and Microanalysis. 2015; 21(S3):1-2.

Palida SF, Butko MT, Ngo JT, Mackey MR, Gross LA, Ellisman MH, Tsien RY. PKM?, but not PKC?, is rapidly synthesized and degraded at the neuronal synapse. J Neurosci. 2015 May 20; 35(20):7736-49. PMID: 25995463; PMCID: PMC4438124; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0004-15.2015;

Yuet KP, Doma MK, Ngo JT, Sweredoski MJ, Graham RL, Moradian A, Hess S, Schuman EM, Sternberg PW, Tirrell DA. Cell-specific proteomic analysis in Caenorhabditis elegans. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Mar 03; 112(9):2705-10. PMID: 25691744; PMCID: PMC4352802; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1421567112;

Mahdavi A, Szychowski J, Ngo JT, Sweredoski MJ, Graham RL, Hess S, Schneewind O, Mazmanian SK, Tirrell DA. Identification of secreted bacterial proteins by noncanonical amino acid tagging. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Jan 07; 111(1):433-8. PMID: 24347637; PMCID: PMC3890788; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1301740111;

Ngo JT, Schuman EM, Tirrell DA. Mutant methionyl-tRNA synthetase from bacteria enables site-selective N-terminal labeling of proteins expressed in mammalian cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Mar 26; 110(13):4992-7. PMID: 23479642; PMCID: PMC3612679; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1216375110;

Ngo JT, Babin BM, Champion JA, Schuman EM, Tirrell DA. State-selective metabolic labeling of cellular proteins. ACS Chem Biol. 2012 Aug 17; 7(8):1326-30. PMID: 22692961; PMCID: PMC3423470; DOI: 10.1021/cb300238w;

Ngo JT, Tirrell DA. Noncanonical amino acids in the interrogation of cellular protein synthesis. Acc Chem Res. 2011 Sep 20; 44(9):677-85. PMID: 21815659; PMCID: PMC3178009; DOI: 10.1021/ar200144y;

Szychowski J, Mahdavi A, Hodas JJ, Bagert JD, Ngo JT, Landgraf P, Dieterich DC, Schuman EM, Tirrell DA. Cleavable biotin probes for labeling of biomolecules via azide-alkyne cycloaddition. J Am Chem Soc. 2010 Dec 29; 132(51):18351-60. PMID: 21141861; PMCID: PMC3016050; DOI: 10.1021/ja1083909;

Dieterich DC, Hodas JJ, Gouzer G, Shadrin IY, Ngo JT, Triller A, Tirrell DA, Schuman EM. In situ visualization and dynamics of newly synthesized proteins in rat hippocampal neurons. Nat Neurosci. 2010 Jul; 13(7):897-905. PMID: 20543841; PMCID: PMC2920597; DOI: 10.1038/nn.2580;

Ngo JT, Champion JA, Mahdavi A, Tanrikulu IC, Beatty KE, Connor RE, Yoo TH, Dieterich DC, Schuman EM, Tirrell DA. Cell-selective metabolic labeling of proteins. Nat Chem Biol. 2009 Oct; 5(10):715-7. PMID: 19668194; PMCID: PMC3176724; DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.200;

Strable E, Prasuhn DE, Udit AK, Brown S, Link AJ, Ngo JT, Lander G, Quispe J, Potter CS, Carragher B, Tirrell DA, Finn MG. Unnatural amino acid incorporation into virus-like particles. Bioconjug Chem. 2008 Apr; 19(4):866-75. PMID: 18318461; PMCID: PMC2713011; DOI: 10.1021/bc700390r;

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 27 publications over 15 distinct years, with a maximum of 4 publications in 2023