Dr. Ho-Chou Tu received her B.S in Zoology at National Taiwan University and PhD in Molecular & Cell Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. Her graduate research focused on the molecular mechanisms of different types of cell death (apoptosis, autophagy and necrosis) between normal and cancer cells. She continued her training as a postdoctoral fellow at Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, focusing on investigating the role of stem cell factors and pathways in solid tumor development and progression. In 2015, Dr. Tu joined Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, the leading RNA interference (RNAi) biotechnology company, developing siRNA therapeutics to treat rare genetic diseases, cardiometabolic diseases and hepatic infectious diseases. This includes the first FDA approved RNAi therapy in 2018, targeting hereditary TTR amyloidosis, a rare genetic disease of polyneuropathy. Alnylam Pharmaceuticals currently has multiple clinical and preclinical programs in their pipeline, including four commercial products. Dr. Tu currently oversees several preclinical and clinical projects, including nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), liver diseases, cardio-metabolic disorder and rare genetic diseases.