Our Mission
My laboratory investigates the biology of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) in normal and malignant B cells. The work from my laboratory establishes that inhibiting the IRE-1/XBP-1s pathway of the ER stress response and activating IRE-1’s interacting protein, STING, are effective therapeutic strategies for B cell cancer and graft-versus-host disease. We also develop novel small molecules to target these pathways. We continue to identify and characterize ER-resident proteins that can be targeted for therapy of human diseases.
Professor of Oncology
Houston Methodist Academic Institute
Full Member
Houston Methodist Research Institute
Professor of Medicine
Texas A&M University College of Medicine
Chih-Chi Andrew Hu, PhD, earned his Bachelor’s degree from China Medical University and Master’s degree from National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan. During his military service as a second lieutenant, he taught histology and performed research at the National Defense Medical Center. Dr. Hu pursued his doctoral training at the New York University School of Medicine (2001-2006) to study membrane protein assembly on the surface of the urinary bladder. Dr. Hu pursued his postdoctoral training with Dr. Hidde L. Ploegh, at the Whitehead Institute/Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2006-2010) to study the functions of the endoplasmic reticulum in normal B cells. He became an Assistant Professor at the Moffitt Cancer Center/University of South Florida (2010-2014) and was later recruited to the Wistar Institute/University of Pennsylvania as an Associate Professor (2014-2019). He was promoted to Full Professor at the same institute in 2020 and recruited to the Houston Methodist Research Institute in December 2020.