Tony Hu

Tony HU

兆易 Zhao-Yi Endowed Professor and Dean
School of Biomedical Engineering
Tsinghua Medicine, Tsinghua University 


Biography

Dr. Tony HU is a Zhao-Yi endowed professor and founding dean at the school of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua University. He was elected as Beijing's Strategic Scientist in 2025. Before joining Tsinghua, he was a Professor in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biomedical Engineering, and Microbiology at Tulane University， the Weatherhead Presidential Chair in Biotechnology Innovation, founding Director of the Center for Intelligent Molecular Diagnostics at Tulane School of Medicine. He is also the fellows of National Academy of Inventors (NAI), American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), European Academy of Sciences (EurAsc) and International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE).

His work has resulted in publications of over 180 high-impact papers, and 25 pat¬ent applications involving nanomedicine. Fourteen of those patents have been licensed by US-based or international companies. Prior to coming to China, Dr. Hu’s lab at Tulane University had been consistently support¬ed by the DOD, NIH, Gates Foundation, WHO and others. He has trained 85 fellows and students from 21 countries, many of whom have moved into independent faculty positions. Dr. Hu is also the co-founders of four biotech startup companies, Intelligenome Inc. in Houston, TX, PrimExo Biotech LLC in Boston, MA, ASTRA Lifescience Co. in San Diego, CA and NanoPin Technologies in New Orleans, LA.

 

Research Focus

Dr. Hu’s research focuses on engineered multi-omics, nanomedicine, machine learning-assisted biosensor design, mechanism-driven biomarker discovery and assay development. His research differs from conventional biomarker discovery and detection research for clinical microbiology in that it employs the special properties of nanomaterials to improve assay performance and reproducibility. His inventions are intended to serve as a model for the analysis of similar characteristics of infectious and malignant diseases to facilitate the development of a full spectrum of diagnostic, prognostic and treatment evaluation assays, and re-define the diagnostic criteria to differentiate disease stages using molecular tests as a long-term goal.

 

Publications

  1. Youngquist, B., Saliba, J., Kim, Y., Cutro, T., Lyon, C., JOlivo, J., Ha, N., Colman, R., Vergara, C., Garfein, R., Catanzaro, D., Perez-Then, E., Graviss, E., Mitchell, C., Rodwell, T., Ning, B., Hu, T.* Rapid tuberculosis diagnosis from respiratory or blood samples by a low cost, portable lab-in-tube assay. Science Translational Medicine. 2025, 17, eadp6411. (Cover Story).
  2. Ning, B., Chandra, S., Pan, Y., Ha, N., Singh, S., Varela, A., Li, L., Wu, Q., Kay, A., Maphalala, G. P., Adu-Gyamfi, C., Longlax, S., Mandalakas, A. M., Lyon, C., Graviss, E. A., DiNardo, A. R., Hu, T.* Self-Powered Rapid Antigen-Specific T cell Response Assay for Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Infections. Nature Biomedical Engineering. 2025, in press.
  3. Ning, B., Chen, L., Youngquist, B.M., Lyon, C.J., Su, Y., Hu, T. Direct delivery of assay reagents to extracellular vesicles in liquid biopsies for biomarker analysis. Nature Protocol. 2025, in press.
  4. Saliba, J. G., Zheng, W., Shu, Q., Li, L., Qu, J., Xie, Y., Ying, B., Huang, H., Lyon, C. J., Hu, T.* Enhanced diagnosis of multi-drug-resistant microbes using group association modeling and machine learning. Nature Communications. 2025, 16:2933.
  5. Huang, Z.,  Song, Z.,  Zeng, J., Liu, X., Fang, M., Chen, Y., Li, D., Huang, H., Fu, L., Xu, P., Ning, B., Lyon, C., Fan, X., Lu, S., Hu, T.* Sensitive pathogen DNA detection by a multi-guide RNA Cas12a assay favoring trans- versus cis-cleavage. Nature Communications. 2025, Accepted.
  6. Zheng, W., LaCourse, S., Song, B., Singh, D. K., Khanna, M., Olivo, J., Stern, J., Escudero, J., Vergara, C., Zhang, F., Li, S., Wang, S., Cranmer, L.M., Huang, Z., Bojanowsk, C.M., Bao, D., Njuguna, I., Xiao, Y., Wamalwa, D. C., Nguyen, D. T., Yang, L., Maleche-Obimbo, E., Nguyen, N., Zhang, L., Phan, H., Fan, J., Ning, B., Li, C., Lyon, C. J., Graviss, E. A., John-Stewart, G., Mitchell, C. D., Ramsay, A. J., Kaushal , D., Liang, R., Pérez-Then, E., Hu, T.* Diagnosis of paediatric tuberculosis by optically detecting two virulence factors on extracellular vesicles in blood samples. Nature Biomedical Engineering. 2022. 6, 979-991.
  7. Huang, Z., LaCourse, S., Kay A.,  Stern, J., Escudero, J., Youngquist, B., Zheng, W., Vambe, D., Dlamini, M., Mtetwa, G., Cranmer, L., Njuguna, I., Wamalwa, D., Maleche-Obimbo, E., Catanzaro, D., Lyon, C., John-Stewart, G., DiNardo, A., Mandalakas, A., Ning, B.,  Hu, T.* CRISPR Detection of Circulating Cell-free M. tuberculosis DNA in Adults and Children, Including Children with HIV. The Lancet Microbe. 2022, 3(7): E482-492.
  8. Ning, B., Huang, Z., Youngquist, B. M, Scott, J. W., Niu, A., Bojanowski, C., M., Zwezdaryk, K. J., Saba, N., S., Fan, J., Yin, X., Cao, J., Lyon, C. J., Li, C., Roy, C. J., Hu, T.* Liposome-mediated detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA-positive extracellular vesicles in plasma. Nature Nanotechnology. 2021. 16, 1039-1044.
  9. Ning, B., Yu, T., Zhang, S., Huang, Z., Tian, D., Lin, Z., Niu, A., Golden, N., Hensley, K., Threeton, B., Lyon, C. J., Yin, X., Saba, N., Rappaport, J., Wei, Q., Hu, T.* A smartphone-read ultrasensitive and quantitative saliva test for COVID-19. Science Advances. 2021. 7(2): eabe3703.
  10. Huang, Z., Ning, B., Yang, H., Youngquist, B., Niu, A., Lyon, C., Beddingfield, B., Fears, A., Monk, C., Murrell, A., Bilton, S., Linhuber, J., Norton, E., Dietrich, M., Lai, W., Scott, J., Yin, X., Rappaport, J., Robinson, J., Saba, N., Roy, C., Zwezdaryk, K., Zhao, Z., Hu, T.* Sensitive tracking of viral RNA in plasma through all stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection. J. Clinical Investigation. 2021, 131(7):e146031.
  11. Liu, Y., Fan, J., Xu, T., Ahmadinejad, N., Hess, K., Lin, S., Zhang, J., Liu, X., Liu, X., Ning, B., Liao, Z., Hu, T.* Extracellular Vesicle Tetraspanin-8 Expression Predicts Distant Metastasis in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer after Concurrent Chemoradiation. Science Advances. 2020, 6:11, eaaz6162.
  12. Liu, C., Zhao, Z., Fan, J., Lyon, C. J., Wu, H., Nedelokv, D., Zelazny, A.M., Olivier, K.N., Cazares, L.H., Holland, S.H., Graviss, E. A., Hu, T.* Quantification of Circulating M. tuberculosis Antigens for Rapid Diagnosis and Real-time Treatment Monitoring. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A.  2017, 114(15):3969-3974. (Highlighted by New England Journal of Medicine)
  13. Liang K., Liu, F., Fan, J., Sun, D., Bernard, D. W., Li, Y., Yokoi, K., Katz, M. H., Koay, E. J., Zhao, Z., Hu, T.* Nanoplasmonic Quantification of Tumor-derived Extracellular Vesicles in Plasma Microsamples for Diagnosis and Treatment Monitoring. Nature Biomedical Engineering. 2017, 1:0021. (Highlighted by Nature Review Gastroenterology & Hepatology)

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