Dr. Yu-Chen Hu was born in 1969 in Taipei. He received his BS degree in Chemical Engineering from National Taiwan University in 1992 and his PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Maryland in 1999, and his post-doc training at National Institutes of Health (USA) from 1999 to 2000. Dr. Hu started his faculty career as an assistant professor at National Tsing Hua University in 2000 and was promoted to associate professor in 2003, professor in 2007, distinguished professor in 2010 and Tsing Hua Chair Professor in 2019.

Dr. Hu research interests include vaccine development, gene therapy, tissue engineering, cancer therapy and synthetic biology. Dr. Hu\'s lab has developed the enterovirus 71 (EV71) vaccine based on virus-like particle technology and also paves a new avenue to the use of baculovirus as a novel vector for gene delivery, regenerative medicine and cancer therapy. Dr. Hu has also combined burgeoning CRISPR technology and synthetic biology for the metabolic engineering of microorganisms and stem cells for production of bio-derived chemicals and tissue regeneration. In particular, he has recently developed various CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) and CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) and CRISPRai platforms to modulate stem cell differentiation so as to improve regeneration of bones and nerves.

Dr. Hu has won the Asia Research Award, Outstanding Research Award twice (Ministry of Science and Technology, 2006, 2014), BEST Biochemical Engineering Achievement Award, Wu Ta-You Memorial Award, Jin Kai-Yin Award, Mao Gao-Wen Award, Outstanding Academia-Industry Research Award and Outstanding Young Investigator Award in Taiwan. He is a fellow of American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), as well as a Fellow Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE), International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering.

Dr. Hu serves as the Program Chair of the Tissue Engineering International Regenerative Medicine Society-Asia Pacific (TERMIS-AP) 2016 meeting, Conference Chair of Asian Congress of Biotechnology (ACB meeting 2019) and the Vice President of Biotechnology and Biochemical Engineering Society of Taiwan. He is also the TERMIS-AP council member (2014-2016, 2018-2020) and the executive board member of Asian Federation of Biotechnology (AFOB). He currently serves as the associated editor of Current Gene Therapy, deputy editor of Journal of Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers, and Coordinator of Chemical Engineering Division, Ministry of Science and Technology.