Wenwei Hu, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology of Rutgers Cancer Institute at Rutgers University. Dr. Hu received her PhD from Zhejiang University School of Medicine for research on mutagenesis induced by chemical carcinogen. Dr. Hu completed postdoctoral training in NYU Medical School focusing on DNA damage and repair before she moved to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey 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 2009, Dr. Hu has been a faculty member at Rutgers Cancer Institute 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 tumorigenesis. Her group discovered that chronic psychological stress impairs wild type p53 function, which contributes to the promoting effect of chronic stress on tumorigenesis. Her group's work also made important contributions toward 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. The research conducted in Dr. Hu's laboratory has been supported by NIH, DOD CDMRP, Ellison Medical Foundation, the American Cancer Society, the NCI network on biobehavioral pathways in cancer (NCI-NPBC), and the NJ Commission on Cancer Research (NJCCR).