Valerie W. Hu, Ph.D.

Valerie W. Hu, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC. Dr. Hu was trained as a chemist, with a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Hawaii, and did postdoctoral research at UCLA in the fields of membrane biochemistry and cellular immunology. In 2004, as the mother of a son on the autism spectrum, she redirected her research focus towards autism and devoted her research towards developing an in-depth understanding of the underlying pathobiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Her research involved the integration of large-scale genomic data from gene expression, genetic, and epigenetic analyses that also take into consideration the behavioral and clinical heterogeneity of ASD with the long-term goals of developing better diagnostics and personalized treatment of individuals on the spectrum. Recently, she turned her attention to environmental contributors that may increase risk for autism through alterations of the epigenome that may be responsible at least in part for the heritability of autistic traits. Aside from her many research publications on autism, she is also the sole editor of a book entitled: Frontiers of Autism Research: New Horizons for Diagnosis and Treatment” which focuses on the emerging and expanding areas of autism research.