Helen Y. Chu
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Helen Y. Chu | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Duke University Cornell University |
| Known for | Immunology Virology |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Maternal immunization |
| Institutions | University of Washington Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center |
| Thesis | A prospective study of respiratory syncytial virus infection among children attending daycare (2012) |
Helen Y. Chu is an American immunologist who is a professor of epidemiology and medicine at the University of Washington.[1] Her research considers maternal immunization, with a focus on influenza and respiratory syncytial virus. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Chu was the first physician to recognize community transmission of the coronavirus disease within the United States.[2][3]
Chu was born in Western China.[4] Her grandparents were academics in Luoyang. Her parent and grandparents were sent to work in countryside labor camps, but as her father had been born in the United States, her parents immigrated to Southern California.[4] In 2001 Chu completed her bachelor's degree at Cornell University. She spent one year as a visiting student at the University of Oxford.[4] She moved to Duke University to train in medicine. Chu was a medical resident at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. In 2009 Chu was appointed to the faculty at Harvard University, before being awarded a fellowship at the University of Washington in 2011. During the first year of her fellowship, Chu encountered the fields of public health and epidemiology through her work on Influenza A virus subtype H1N1.[4]
