Eugene Gu - Misplaced Pages

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Eugene Gu
File:Dreugenegu.jpeg
Born	1986 (age 38–39) San Francisco, California
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	Stanford University (B.S. Biological Sciences, 2008); Duke University School of Medicine (M.D. Doctor of Medicine, 2015)
Occupation	Resident physician

Eugene Gu (born 1986) is a resident physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and President and CEO of the Ganogen Research Institute. He is known for his research transplanting human fetal hearts and kidneys into rats in the search for a treatment for congenital heart and kidney diseases.

Early life and education

Gu was born and raised in San Francisco, the oldest of two children. He graduated from Terra Nova High School in 2004 as valedictorian and later from Stanford University in 2008 with a degree in biology.

Gu then earned his M.D. from Duke University School of Medicine in 2015. During medical school, Gu was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship to perform research at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Research focus

He is the leading expert in the fields of fetal surgery and xenotransplantation, performing the first successful human fetal heart and kidney transplants in immunocompromised rats. Dr. Gu was the first to discover a method of lowering the mean arterial pressure of the blood entering the transplanted fetal organ within the animal host to the appropriate physiological level seen in a fetus, thus allowing the transplants to be successful. The heart and kidneys not only survived but grew larger in size and could function to support the life of the host animal. This may have important implications for the treatment of hypoplastic left heart syndrome, bilateral renal agenesis, and other congenital diseases of the heart and kidney. Dr. Gu has stated that he hopes to transplant human hearts and kidneys into immunocompromised pigs for future transplantation in human patients as a potential solution to the dire organ donor shortage.

Activism

On March 30, 2016, Gu was subpoenaed by Congress for his research involving human fetal tissue. He has since spoken out about what he perceives to be the unfair treatment and intimidation of researchers and physicians drawn into the Planned Parenthood 2015 undercover videos controversy. Together with StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer, Gu wrote an article in Nature drawing attention to Representatives Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Diane Black of Tennessee, and Vicky Hartzler of Missouri for endangering the lives of researchers and hindering research into the Zika virus. According to broadcasts on Science Friday with Ira Flatow and on The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur, Gu has placed his research temporarily on hold due to the to current political environment and harassment from pro-life activists like David Daleiden and far-right news media Breitbart News.

External links

Eugene Gu on Twitter

References

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