Biography

Dr Thomas Tu has spent the last 11 years researching the hepatitis B virus. His research has focused on detecting the different virus forms and how they contribute to the infection persistence and the liver cancer that is associated with chronic HBV infection. He has carried out research at the University of Adelaide, the Centenary Institute (Camperdown), and the University of Heidelberg (Germany). Keywords

Hepatology, virology

Themes

Hepatitis B virus, liver cancer, evolution, DNA integration

Research Focus

● Early stages of liver cancer initiation and the clonal expansion of phenotypically altered hepatocytes.
● Using hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection as a model disease, to probe long-term host-virus interactions and their roles in liver cancer progression.