Chenghua Gu is a Professor of Neurobiology at the

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

where her research focuses on the

Blood–brain barrier The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a highly selective semipermeable membrane, semipermeable border of endothelium, endothelial cells that prevents solutes in the circulating blood from ''non-selectively'' crossing into the extracellular fluid of ...

. She is also part of the Harvard Brain Science Initiative and has won numerous awards for her groundbreaking research on the brain's vascular component.

Education

Gu earned her

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

. at

Cornell Medical School The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is Cornell University's biomedical research unit and medical school located in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York. Weill Cornell Medicine is affiliated with N ...

. She then joined the lab of David Ginty at the

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hospi ...

where she studied the role of semaphorin signaling in vascular development.

Research

Gu's research focuses on the development of the blood-brain barrier and its interaction with neuronal networks. She uses experimental techniques such as

Two-photon excitation microscopy Two-photon excitation microscopy (TPEF or 2PEF) is a fluorescence imaging technique that allows imaging of living tissue up to about one millimeter in thickness, with 0.64 μm lateral and 3.35 μm axial spatial resolution. Unlike traditional flu ...

, mouse genetics and computational models to study neurovascular coupling, the regulation of blood flow by changes in neuronal activity, and vascular patterning. Her laboratory has recently published on the importance of the inhibition of transcytosis for maintaining blood-brain barrier integrity and how the mechanisms regulating transcytosis levels could be manipulated to aid the entry of therapeutics into the central nervous system.

Award and honors

* Allen Distinguished Investigator Award, 2018 * Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar, 2016 * National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award, 2014 * Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, 2008 * Whitehall Foundation Award, 2007 * Klingenstein Fellowship Award, 2007 * March of Dimes Foundation Award, 2007

References

External links

* https://gu.hms.harvard.edu/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Gu, Chenghua Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Weill Cornell Medical College alumni Harvard Medical School faculty American women neuroscientists American neuroscientists