Zhang-Zhi Hu, M.D.

Dr. Zhang-Zhi Hu obtained his M.D. from Wannan Medical College and received graduate training (M.S.) in endocrinology from Beijing Medical University, China. He had postdoctoral training at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD, 1993-1998) with a research focus on molecular mechanisms of gene regulation of reproductive hormone receptors in gonadal and non-gonadal tissues including breast cancers. He continued his research in molecular endocrinology as a staff fellow at NICHD until 2001. He then moved to Georgetown University at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular and Cellular Biology where he extended his research to a then emerging field of bioinformatics, genomics and proteomics. He became an associate professor in the Department of Oncology at Georgetown University Medical Center (2007-2010) where his study focused on biological pathway and network analyses for cancer biomarker and molecular target identification for breast and prostate cancers. In 2010, Dr. Hu joined the Center for Scientific Review (CSR) of NIH where he first managed the Cancer Diagnostics and Treatments study section for small business grants and then Cancer Immunopathology and Immunotherapy study section (2020-2022), both covering a broad range of topics on immuno-oncology including cellular therapies, immune checkpoint inhibitors, antibodies, virotherapies, vaccines, antitumor immune regulations, and therapeutic resistance. Dr. Hu joined the IOB in 2022, and his programmatic interests include cellular immunotherapies, immune checkpoint blockade, neoantigens and cancer vaccines, modulation of tumor microenvironment, immune cell engineering for ex vivo and in vivo applications, and new technologies for immunotherapeutic development and delivery.