Dr. Charleen Chu is Professor of Pathology in the Division of Neuropathology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She holds a secondary appointment in Ophthalmology.

Dr. Chu graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University with an AB degree in 1987. She went on to receive both a PhD and an MD from Duke University in the years 1993 and 1994, respectively. Following graduation, Dr. Chu continued on at Duke, doing postdoctoral work in Anatomic Pathology and then continuing as the recipient of a neuro-oncology post-doctoral research fellowship and a neuropathology & ophthalmic pathology fellowship, before joining the University of Pittsburgh.

Among other honors, Dr. Chu was the recipient of the Charles E. Culpeper Scholarship in Medical Science from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund in 2000-2003; she was also a semifinalist in the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2005-2006 at Pitt. Most recently, she received the Carnegie Science Award for Emerging Female Scientists, the American Society for Investigative Pathology Outstanding Investigator Award, and was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

The focus areas of Dr. Chu's research are as follows:

• The regulation of autophagy and autophagic remodeling in neurons
• Mitochondrial quality control (biogenesis, chaperones and mitophagy) in Parkinson's disease
• PINK1 and LRRK2, kinases linked to familial Parkinsonian syndromes
• Oxidative stress and transcriptional/translational regulation of neuritic/synaptic injury and regeneration

View Publications.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Dr. Charleen T. Chu
Phone: 412-383-5379
Email: ctc4@pitt.edu