Thomas Tu
Adjunct Associate Professor
Ph.D.
Thomas.tu@wimr.org.au
Viral Hepatitis Pathogenesis Group
Currently open to PHD and Honours students in the topic areas of:
Liver Cancer
Chronic Hepatitis B infection

Biography
A/Prof Thomas Tu research group focuses on persistent forms of the Hepatitis B virus, developing ways to measure and eliminate them. He is particularly passionate about developing an HBV cure and mitigating the associated liver cancer, as he himself lives with chronic Hepatitis B. This provides him with unique perspectives on the disease as a researcher, patient, and advocate. He has won multiple awards for his research and outreach, including the 2022 Young Tall Poppy Science Award and the Paul and Valeria Ainsworth Precision Medicine Fellowship.
Research interests
Molecular mechanisms of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection persistence and HBV DNA integration, Long-term host-virus interactions and their roles in disease progression during chronic HBV infection, Early stages of liver cancer initiation and the clonal expansion of altered hepatocytes, The broader impacts of chronic hepatitis B from the perspective of the affected community
Adjunct roles
Adjunct Associate Professor | University of Sydney, Westmead Clinical School |
Additional information
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=N8W0zoIAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate
ORCID: 0000-0002-0482-4387
Scopus Author ID: 55858515500
Thomas Tu LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-tu-27870284/
USYD link – https://www.sydney.edu.au/medicine-health/about/our-people/academic-staff/t-tu.html
Current grants
Paul & Valeria Ainsworth | 2023-2026 | Precision medicine approaches to prevent the impacts of chronic hepatitis B |
NHMRC | 2023-2026 | Optimising treatment of Hepatitis B with novel predictive biomarkers |
ACH4 | 2022-2023 | Building active surveillance systems to track hepatitis C virus epidemiology and antiviral resistance |
GESA | 2022-2023 | Curing chronic hepatitis B by targeting virus reservoirs |
Gilead Sciences | 2022-2023 | HBV train the trainer online program |
Excision Biosciences | 2022-2023 | Use of designer nucleases for cccDNA degradation |
Gilead Sciences | 2022-2023 | Investigating Treatment Engagement and Monitoring in Hep B-affected communities (ITEM-B) |
NHMRC | 2021-2023 | Inhibiting host TM6SF2 to cure Hepatitis B |
Stephan Urban Foundation | 2023 | The BRIGHTEST project (Blood Result Interpreter, Getting Hep-B Tests into Everyday Simple Terms) |
Affiliations
University of Sydney, Sydney Infectious Diseases
Professional Associations and Organisations
2020-present | Australian Centre for Hepatitis Virology | President since 2021; Secretary 2020-2021) |
2022-present | Hepatitis B Voices Australia | Co-founder, Deputy Chair, Secretary and Director |
2020-2022 | Hepatitis Australia | Board Director |
2020- present | HepBcommunity.org | Founder and Executive Director |
2022-present | Westmead Research Hub Mentoring Program | Founder and Program Coordinator |
2023-present | Early Career Researcher Workshop for the International meeting for the Molecular Biology of Hepatitis B Viruses | Founder and lead organiser |
2021-present | Westmead Research Hub EMCR committee | Deputy Chair and Executive member |
2023-present | National WHOCC Research Advisory Group | Committee member |
2023-present | NSW Hepatitis B Strategy Implementation program | Committee member |
2021-2023 | NSW Hepatitis B Strategy Consultation group, Department of Health | Committee member |
2022-present | Hepatitis B Forum for Collaborative Research, USA | Advisory member |
2022-present | WIMR Scientific Faculty and Career Development Committee | Steering committee member |
2022- present | Australian National Hepatitis B Strategy Targets Workshop | Committee member |
2022- present | Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research | Committee member |
2022-present | Hepatitis B Foundation, USA | Executive Committee member |
2021-present | Hepatitis B Foundation, USA | Community Advisory Board Member |
2021-present | Hepatitis B Foundation, USA | Emerging Scientific and Medical Advisory Board Member |
2021-present | “Hep B University” Train the Trainer resource for HBV | Anti-Discrimination Working Group Committee member |
2020-2021 | Hepatitis B Information and Support List (HBlist.net) | Lead coordinator |
2020-present | International Coalition to Eliminate HBV | Administrator |
2019-2020 | National HBV Consensus Statement | Stakeholder Consulting Group Committee member |
2019-2020; 2022-present | Viruses Journal | Community Oversight Group Member |
2020-present | Hepatoma Research | Guest editor |
2019-present | Frontiers in Microbiology (Virology) | Editorial board member |
Editorial board member |
Awards and recognition
Recipient of the New South Wales 2022 Young Tall Poppy Science Award |