Wenwei Hu

Wenwei Hu is Associate Professor of the Department of Radiation Oncology of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey at Rutgers University. Dr. Hu received M.B. degree from Zhejiang University School of Medicine and then received Ph.D. degree from same university for research on mutagenesis induced by chemical carcinogen. Dr. Hu had postdoctoral training at the NYU School of Medicine, focusing on DNA damage and repair. She then moved to UMDNJ continuing her postdoctoral training with Dr. Arnold Levine studying p53 and its signaling pathway. During this period, she discovered a novel physiological function of p53 in regulation of maternal implantation. Since 2008, she has been a faculty member at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick, NJ. A major research interest of Dr. Hu’s group is to study the function and regulation of tumor suppressor p53, which in turn impacts upon tumorigenesis. Her group discovered that chronic psychological stress impairs wild type p53 function, which contributes to the promoting effect of chronic stress on tumorigenesis. The work from her group also made important contribution to understand the mechanisms of mutant p53 accumulation and gain of oncogenic activity in tumors. In addition, Dr. Hu studies the function of LIF, a cytokine that is a p53 target, in tumorigenesis.