Honghua (Helen) Hu

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35 George Mobbs Drive

Castle Hill, NSW, 2154

Australian citizenship

Ph: (02) 96145761

Mobile: 0423427722

Email:

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CAREER GOALS

I would like to develop my career in biomedical research. By acquiring new knowledge and experience and consolidating those I already have, I hope to be able to contribute to several areas of biomedical interest.

EDUCATION

1999 – 2004PhD in Molecular Microbiology

Prof. Reeves’ Laboratory, Discipline of Microbiology

School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences

The University of Sydney, NSW

Thesis: Molecular typing and evolution of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium

Award:A H Thurburn Postgraduate Scholarship

Achievements:

  • Initiated molecular typing of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium in Professor Reeves’ laboratory
  • Data from my project study helped Prof. Reeves to obtain an NHMRC project grant “Molecular typing of Salmonellaenterica serovar Typhimurium” in 2001-2003
  • Two refereed papers have been published

2001Graduate Certificate in Higher Education

Institute of Teaching and Learning

The University of Sydney, NSW

Project: Motivating cooperative project-based learning: benefits and problems

1998Graduate Diploma in Agricultural Science (Microbiology)

Discipline of Microbiology

School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences

The University of Sydney, NSW

Thesis: Genomic relationships between selected phage types of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimuriumdefined by AFLP DNA fingerprinting

Marks: Equivalent to first class honours

1986 – 1990Bachelor of Science in Microbiology

Department of Microbiology

School of Life Sciences

Fudan University, Shanghai, China

Thesis: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) DNA-based diagnostic studies

Award: Undergraduate scholarship

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP

  • The Australian Society for Microbiology Inc. Member
  • The Ausinan Science and Technology Society. Member

FURTHER TRAINING

2000ANGIS Advanced Bioinformatics Course

Five day advanced Australian National Genomic Information Service (ANGIS) course at the University of Sydney

2007Microarrays: Advanced Analysis Workshop

Sydney Bioinformatics in the University of Sydney

2008 & 2009Real-Time Molecular Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases Workshop

Westmead Hospital Education and Conference Centre

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

2010 – PresentResearch Associate

Familial Cancer Service

Westmead Institute for Cancer Research,

Faculty of Medcine,The University of Sydney

Westmead Hospital, NSW

Projects:

  • Establishment and validation of tumour testing methods for somatic gene mutations for personalised targeted drug therapy
  • Patient mutation testing of two breast cancer susceptibility genes (BRCA1 and BRCA2)

Responsibilities:

  • Literature search, experiments design, implementation and data analysis
  • Establish and validate somatic gene mutations tumour testing methods for human FFPE (Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded)tissue samples using high resolution melting analysis, DNA sequencing and pyrosequencing
  • Preparation of In-house In-Vitro Diagnostic Divice validation documents

Achievements:

  • Establishedmolecular diagnostic tests for somatic gene mutation testing
  • Familiar with hospital environment and policies
  • Appreciatedquality assurance procedures in a NATA accredited diagnostic lab

2006 – 2009Research Academic

Cystic Fibrosis Microbiology Reseach Group

Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology

Faculty of Medcine, The University of Sydney, NSW

Projects:

  • Molecular characterisation of a transmissible Pseudomonas aeruginosastrain fromcystic fibrosis(CF) patients
  • Determinants ofacquisition, virulence and persistence of P. aeruginosa lung infection in CF patients
  • Prevalence study of P. aeruginosaclonal strains in Australian CF clinics
  • Comparison of the microbiomes of CF and bronchiectasis lung infections

Responsibilities:

  • Literature search, experiment design, implementation and data analysis
  • In charge of a PC2 (Physical Containment Level 2) lab. Obtained NLRD (Notifiable Low Risk Dealings) approval from USYD Occupational Health and Safety management for using genetic modified Organisms in the PC2 lab
  • Co-supervision of one TSP (talented student program) student and assistant supervision of two PhD and three honours students
  • Development ofstandard operating procedures for molecular typing and phenotypic testingof P. aeruginosa isolates
  • Collaborate closely and communicate clearly with clinical researchers in the hospital environment
  • Involvement in research project proposal and NHMRC grant applications

Achievements:

  • Developed supervision and teaching skills. My TSP student achieved high distinction in her talented student program
  • Managed multiple research projects. Developed ability in setting priority to handle multi-tasks and high degree of diligence in completing tasks
  • Five refereed papers have been published

2007 – 2009Guest Lecturer

Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology

Faculty of Medicine, The University of Sydney, NSW

Topics:

  • Molecular Indentification of Microorganisms
  • Molecular Typing of Microorganisms

Courses:

  • INFD3012 (Bachelor of Medical Science students Infectious Diseases)
  • INIM5012 (Master of Infection Control and Epidemiology)

2004 – 2006Senior Research Assistant & Postdoc

Human Nutrition Unit

School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences

The University of Sydney, NSW

Project:

  • Transcriptional regulation of gene expression: dietary sialic acid interaction in brain cognitive development using piglets as an animal model
  • The role of sialic acid in infant nutrition and brain development using piglets as an animal model

Responsibilities:

  • Literature search, experiments design, implementation and data analysis
  • Organisation of research projects and assistant supervision of one PhD and two honours students
  • Involvement in research project proposal and NHMRC grant applications

Achievements:

  • Developed great attention to detail, especially when dealing with high volume of data and molecular works
  • Developed ability to work unsupervised and in a cooperative team
  • My contribution helped Dr. Bing Wang to obtain an NHMRC project grant “Transcriptional regulation of gene expression: Dietary sialic acid interaction in brain cognitive development” for 2008 – 2010
  • Three refereed papers have been published

SCIENTIFIC SKILLS

Microbiology techniques:

  • Aseptic techniques
  • Media preparation and sterilisation
  • Bacterial isolation, storage and culture
  • Stains and microscopy
  • Quantitative microbiology
  • Antibiotic sensitivity testing
  • Biofilms

General molecular techniques:

  • DNA and RNA extraction and quantification
  • PCR, multiplex PCR, long-range PCR and quantitative real-time PCR
  • Molecular cloning
  • Restriction enzyme digestion
  • Agarose gel electrophoresis and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and SDS-PAGE
  • DNA hybridasation (Southern blot) and protein immunoblot (Western blot)

Molecular identification of bacterial species:

  • Taqman real-time PCR assay
  • TRFLP (terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism)
  • 16S rDNA sequencing and ARDRA (Amplified rDNA restriction analysis)

Molecular typing of bacteria:

  • AFLP (amplified-fragment length polymorphism)
  • PFGE (pulse-field gel electrophoresis)
  • ERIC (enterobacterialrepetitive intergenic consensus)-PCR
  • MLST (multilocus sequence typing)
  • MLVA (multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis)

Mutation detection:

  • dHPLC (denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography)
  • HRM (high resolution melt analysis)
  • Bi-directional DNA sequencing
  • SNaPshot primer extension
  • Pyrosequencing

Gene expression:

  • Reverse transcription PCR and quantitative real-time PCR
  • Microarray

Instrumentation:

  • Corbett Rotor-gene 6000 and Qiagen Q for real-time PCR and HRM
  • PyroMark Q24 for Pyrosequencing
  • dHPLC and HPLC (High performance liquid chromatography)
  • Corbett CAS1200 Robotic system
  • Corbett X-tractor Gene automated DNA extractor

Bioinformaticsand Softwares:

  • DNA fragments analysis for genotyping: GeneMapperv4.0 and Gelcompar II
  • PCR primer design: Oligo 6 and Primer Express 3.0
  • Sequence data mining: GenBank, GeneCards, Ensembl Genome Browser
  • DNA sequence variant analysis: Mutation Surveyor v 3.30
  • DNA sequences assembly: Phred, Phrap and Consed, Newbler Assembler and MIRA 3
  • DNA sequence alignment: BLAST, FASTA and ClustalW
  • Sequence annotation and submission: Sequin 10.00
  • Phylogenetic tree construction programs: PHYLIP (phylogeny inference package) and PAUP 4.0 (phylogenetic analysis using parsimony)
  • Microarray data analysis: R and Bioconductor, MeV (MultiExperiment Viewer) v4.5.1
  • Database usage: Filemaker Pro 9.0 and Cerner Millennium PowerChart
  • Data statistics analysis: SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences)17
  • Bibliography management: Endnote X3

Animal models:

  • Working with piglets as an animal model for food/drug tests
  • Use of C. elegans as an animal model for studies of virulence factors and pathogenesis of P. aeruginosa

REFEREED PUBLICATIONS

  1. Tingpej P, Elkins M, Rose B, Hu H, Moriarty C, Manos J, Barras B, Bye P, Harbour C.(2010)Clinical profile of adult cystic fibrosis patients with frequent epidemic clones of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Respirology15(6):923-929. Impact factor: 1.853
  1. Fung C, Naughton S, Turnbull L, Tingpej P, Rose B, Arthur J, Hu H, Harmer C, Harbour C, Hassett DJ, Whitchurch CB, Manos J.(2010)Gene expression of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a mucin-containing synthetic growth medium mimicking cystic fibrosis lung sputum. Journal of Medical Microbiology59(Pt 9):1089-1100. Impact factor: 2.567
  1. Kidd TJ, Ramsay KA, Hu H, Bye PT, Elkins MR, Grimwood K, Harbour C, Marks GB, Nissen MD, Robinson PJ, Rose BR, Sloots TP, Wainwright CE, Bell SC; The ACPinCF Investigators(2009) Low rates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa misidentification in cystic fibrosis patients. Journal of Clinical Microbiology47(5):1503-1509. Impact factor: 4.126
  1. Manos J, Arthur J, Rose B, Bell S, Tingpej P, Hu H, Webb J, Kjelleberg S, Gorrell MD, Bye P, Harbour C. (2009) Gene expression characteristics of a cystic fibrosis epidemic strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa during biofilm and planktonic growth.FEMS Microbiology Letters292(1):107-114. Impact factor: 2.354
  1. Manos J, Arthur J, Rose B, Tingpej P, Fung C, Curtis M, Hu H, Bye P and Harbour C (2008). Transcriptomic and biofilm-forming characteristics of a clonal Pseudomonas aeruginosa from the cystic fibrosis lung. Journal of Medical Microbiology 57: 1454-1465.Impact factor: 2.567
  1. Wang B,Yu B, Karim M,Hu H, Sun Y, McGreevy P, Petocz P, Held S and Brand-Miller J (2007) Dietary sialic acid supplementation improves learning and memory in piglets. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 85: 561-569. Impact factor: 7.744
  1. Wang B, Hu H & Yu B (2007)Molecular characterisation of pig UDP-N-acetylglucosamine-2-epimerase/Nacetylmannosamine kinase (Gne) gene and effect of dietary sialic acid supplementation on gene expression of Gne in piglets. Current topics in nutraceuticals research5(4): 165-176
  1. Hu H, Lan R and Reeves PR (2006) Adaptation of multilocus sequencing to study variation within a major clone: evolutionary relationships of phage types in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. Genetics 172(2): 743-750. Impact factor: 4.283
  1. Wang B, Hu H and Yu B (2006) Molecular characterization of pig ST8Sia IV – a critical gene for the formation of neural cell adhesion molecule and its response to sialic acid supplement in piglets. Nutritional Neuroscience 9(3-4):147-154. Impact factor: 1.681
  1. Hu H, Lan R and Reeves PR (2002) Fluorescent amplified-fragment length polymorphism analysis of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium reveals phage-type specific markers and potential for microarray typing. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 40(9): 3406-3415. Impact factor: 4.126

OTHER PUBLICATION

1. Hu H (2005) Molecular typing and evolution of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. Microbiology Australia 25(1): 43.

PATENT

1. Chen, S. Y. and Hu H. (1995) Pellet high vitality pectinase preparation. A patent in The People’s Republic of China. The public No. is CN 1102671 A, the public day is 17th May, 1995.

ORAL PRESENTATIONS

  1. Hu H, Rose B, Harmer C, Wainwright C, Whitchurch C, Cheney J, Anuj S, Tingpej P, Turnbull L, Manos J, Bye P, HarbourC and the ACFBAL study investigators. Pseudomonas aeruginosa in early cystic fibrosis lung infection: determinants of acquisition, virulence and persistence. Presented at the Australian Society for Microbiology 2004 National Conference. Perth, Australia, 6th July to 10th July 2009.
  1. Harmer C, Alnassafi K, Manos J, Hu H, Rose B and Harbour C. Genetic basis of virulence in frequent P. aeruginosa clonal complexes isolated from Australiancystic fibrosis patients. Presented by C Harmer in Pseudomonas 2009, XII International Conference. Hannover, Germany,August 13th - 17th, 2009.
  1. Alnassafi K, Harmer C, Tingpej P,Hu H, Jim Manos, Barbara Rose,Mark Elkins,Peter Bye,Colin Harbour. Genetic basis of virulence in P. aeruginosa clonal complexes isolated from cystic fibrosis patients in Australia. Presented by K Alnassafi at Australian Society for Microbiology 2004 National Conference. Perth, Australia, 6th July to 10th July 2009.
  1. Hu H, Lan R and Reeves PR. Molecular evolutionary relationships among Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium isolates of different phage types by studying mutational changes. Presented at Australian Society for Microbiology 2004 National Conference. Sydney, Australia, 26th Sep. to 1st Oct. 2004.
  1. Hu H, Lan R and Reeves PR.AFLP analysis of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium reveals phage-type specific markers and potential for microarray typing. Presented at Australian Society for Microbiology 2002 National Conference. Melbourne, Australia, 29th Sep. to 3rd Oct. 2002.

POSTERS

  1. Barras B, Chan R, Hu H, Rose B and Harbour C. gyrAgene mutations in quinolone resistant and intermediate phenotypes of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from cystic fibrosis patients. Presented in Australian Society for Microbiology 2004 National Conference. Perth, Australia, 6th July to 10th July 2009.
  1. Wang, B., Yu B., Hu H., Petocz P. and Brand-Miller J. Effect of dietary sialic acid supplementation on gene expression of polysialyltransferase ST8Sia IV in piglets. Presented in Nutrition Society of Australia 2005 National Conference. Melbourne, Australia, 30th Nov. to 3rd Dec. 2005.
  1. Wang, B., Yu B., Hu H., Petocz P. and Brand-Miller J. Effect of sialic acid supplementation on gene expression of UDP-N-acetylglucosamine-2-epimerase/N-acetylmannosamine kinase in piglets. Presented in Nutrition Society of Australia 2005 National Conference. Melbourne, Australia, 30th Nov. to 3rd Dec. 2005.

REFEREES: Available on request.

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