Chiung-Yu Hung, Ph.D.

Hung has made significant contributions to the medical mycology field with over 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts.  She co-invented three U.S. patents for vaccines against Coccidioides infection and invented two patents related to the discovery of antigens for vaccine and diagnosis of Valley fever. Her research from 2017 to now has been supported with over $15 million in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other organizations, including a $6.8 million NIH grant to establish the San Antonio-based Coccidioidomycosis Collaborative Research Center.

She serves as co-director of the Vaccine Development Center of 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 serves as a board member of the Coccidioidomycosis Study Group, a global organization focused on Valley fever research. She is also an executive committee member of the South Texas Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases and a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors.

Hung became a UTSA tenured faculty member in 2017.  She teaches undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in microbiology and immunology. She directs the Hung Lab, which aims to develop better chemotherapies and preventative vaccines to combat fungal infections, with a focus on host-fungus interactions and anti-microbial immunity. Her lab provides multidisciplinary training opportunities for students interested in immune mechanisms against microbial infection, vaccine development, and the discovery of novel fungal chemotherapies.

Hung earned her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin and her B.S. in Biology from National Taiwan Normal University.