Chiung-Yu Hung, Ph.D. studies pathogen interactions and is currently focused on developing treatments and a vaccine for Valley Fever (coccidiodes). This fungus lives in the soil in the southwestern US, Mexico, and parts of Central and South Amercia. An estimated 150,000 people are affected annually in the US with pulmonary issues as the primary result, often lasting for the rest of their lives. She has established a research lab at UTSA to further this work and has filed six patents as a result. She recently received UTSA’s Innovator of the Year award for her research and creativity.
Hung is an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at UTSA. She is co-director of the Vaccine Development Center at San Antonio, a collaborative partnership between UTSA, Texas Biomedical Research Institute, UT Health San Antonio, and Southwest Research Institute to fund advancements in vaccine discovery and development. She also is an executive committee member of the South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases, a member of the American Association of Immunologists, the American Society for Microbiology, the Medical Mycological Society of the Americas (MMSA), and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). She is an author on nearly 70 peer-reviewed publications.
She holds a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from UT Austin and a B.S. in Biology from National Taiwan Normal University.
