Distinguished Visiting Chair

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EDUCATION AND POSITIONS HELD:

• M.D., National Taiwan University, 1968
• M.S., Yale University, 1969
• Ph.D., Microbiology/Immunology, University of Chicago, 1973
• Assistant Professor through Professor of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego, 1977-2001
• Professor and Chief, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, University of California, San Diego, 2001-2003
• Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director, Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, 2003-present

HONORS:

• Biotech All-Stars, San Diego Padre, Qualcome Stadium, 1997
• Health Hero of year 2000, awarded by the Epilepsy Society Doctor of the year, Honorable Mention, UCSD Medical Center, 2000
• Honored at the S.D. Padres Stadium for launching a new vaccine study for children with neuroblastoma, 2000
• Recipient of the Year 2000 “Key to Life” Award from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, 2001
• Honored at the San Diego Padres Stadium as Community Health Heros, 2001
• The 19^th Wang Min-Ning Memorial Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Development Mediccal Sciene and Technology, National Health and Society, 2009
• The 55^th Academic Award from the Ministry of Education, 2011

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Dr. Yu has a longstanding interest in translational research, aiming to bridge the gap between laboratory research and clinical medicine. In particular, she has been pursuing therapy targeting specific molecular alterations in cancer from small molecules to biologics. She has led several nationwide cooperative group clinical trials in the USA. As a pioneer in cancer immunotherapy targeting GD2, she has taken an anti-GD2 monoclonal antibody from IND application through phase I, II and III clinical trial which culminated in significant improvement in the outcome of high risk neuroblastoma. She is now developing therapeutic cancer vaccines targeting GD2 with anti-idiotypic antibody for neuroblastoma and melanoma, and glycans such as GloboH and Gb5 with synthetic carbohydrates for the treatment of epithelial cancers including cancers of breast, lung, ovary, pancreas, etc. She has a broad spectrum of research interest ranging from molecular signature of cancer and cancer stem cells, cell cycle regulation, in vitro and in vivo preclinical screening of novel therapeutic agents, design, development and implementation of clinical protocols for immunotherapy and other clinical investigation.