Past President: Zezong Gu

Tenured professor in the Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences at the University of Missouri (MU) School of Medicine and Health Research Scientist at Harry S. Truman VA Medical Center.

Dr.Gu received his medical degree from Tianjin Medical University in China and his PhD in cell biology and neuroscience from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas. He joined Dr. Stuart Lipton at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, California, where he advanced from a postdoctoral fellow to research assistant professor. Dr.Gu was then recruited to MU to help create the Center for Translational Neuroscience and support the Center’s neuroscience-focused core facilities. Research of Gu’s lab interests in aging and neurodegenerative diseases include traumatic brain injury on the nitrosative/oxidative stress-mediated redox signal transduction using both cell-based and in vivo rodent disease models. In particular, a team led by Dr.Gu developed an open-field “Missouri Blast” model that mimics scenarios in theater combat and of military occupational training. Dr.Gu has led the VA-funded Open Field Blast Core and serves on the Steering Committee of the PRECISE-TBI Interagency Resource Center (IRC) and PRECIS-TBI Educational Core, as well as in the DOD CDMRP-funded Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Diseases (ADRD) program and the VA ORD-funded Collaborative Merit Consortium on TBI-induced Tauopathy; He has also engaged with the Long-Term Impact of Military-Relevant Brain Injury Consortium Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium (LIMBIC-CENC) and the Acute Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium (AENC). Dr.Gu has served as a regular member (2011-2020) of the Basic Cell, Cell Structure and Survival (Basic Cell-CSS) study section of the American Heart Association (AHA) Unified Peer-review Consortium; an Ad hoc panelist for the Scientific Evaluation and Selection Committee of the Brain Canada Review Committee for the Canadian “Focus on Brain” Initiative, Ad hoc Scientific Reviewer for the DOD USAMRMC CDMRP programs: CRRP TSIM-2 panel for CDMRP-BAA-RDTRA; CDMRP-MRDC-BAA Military Operational Medicine (MOM) panel, and MTEC MOM panel. Dr. Gu’s research has been produced 80+ peer-reviewed scientific articles and trained total over 40 people including staff scientists, postdocs, medical and graduate students.