Eugene Gu is an American

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and social media personality. While he was in medical school, he founded a company called Ganogen to develop methods to use fetal tissue implants in

organ transplantation Organ transplantation is a medical procedure in which an organ is removed from one body and placed in the body of a recipient, to replace a damaged or missing organ. The donor and recipient may be at the same location, or organs may be trans ...

. Work at Ganogen had ceased when he started his residency in 2015, but in 2016 he was subpoenaed as CEO of the company by the United States House Select Investigative Panel on Planned Parenthood following the Planned Parenthood 2015 undercover videos controversy. Gu was one of a group of Twitter users blocked by Donald Trump who sued the President for violating their first amendment rights in ''

Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump ''Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump'', 928 F.3d 226 (2nd Cir. 2019), was a Second Circuit Court of Appeals case on the use of social media as a Forum (legal), public forum. The plaintiffs, Philip N. Cohen, Eugene Gu, Holly Figueroa O'Rei ...

'', and won a declaratory judgment in May 2018.

Education and training

Gu earned his undergraduate degree from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 2008 in biology then earned his M.D. from Duke University School of Medicine in 2015.

Career

While he was in medical school, Gu was awarded a

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

fellowship to perform research at the

Stanford University School of Medicine The Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California, United States. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Fra ...

. He wanted to see if organs from a fetus might be able to adapt to the immune system of a host into which it was transplanted; as a first step he transplanted

human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...

fetal A fetus or foetus (; : fetuses, foetuses, rarely feti or foeti) is the unborn offspring of a viviparous animal that develops from an embryo. Following the embryonic stage, the fetal stage of development takes place. Prenatal development is a ...

heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

s and

kidney In humans, the kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped blood-filtering organ (anatomy), organs that are a multilobar, multipapillary form of mammalian kidneys, usually without signs of external lobulation. They are located on the left and rig ...

s into

immunocompromised Immunodeficiency, also known as immunocompromise, is a state in which the immune system's ability to fight infectious diseases and cancer is compromised or entirely absent. Most cases are acquired ("secondary") due to extrinsic factors that affe ...

rats. In 2012 Gu and Nick K. Chang, who had also gone to Stanford and was a Duke medical student, founded Ganogen, Inc., as a vehicle to further develop these methods. Gu put the work on hold when he started his residency, and took down the company's website after he was harassed in the wake of the Planned Parenthood 2015 undercover videos controversy. He had decided in early 2016 to convert the company to nonprofit. Gu put the company's website back up when he learned he had been subpoenaed by Congress in March 2016. In March 2016, Gu, in his role as CEO of Ganogen, was subpoenaed by the United States House Select Investigative Panel on Planned Parenthood that was created in response to the Planned Parenthood 2015 undercover videos controversy, to testify about his research involving human fetal tissue. Gu has since spoken out about what he perceives to be the unfair treatment and intimidation of researchers and

physicians A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis ...

by the panel, which included the panel releasing the names, addresses, and contact information of people who work with fetal tissue. Gu was recognized by the

Union of Concerned Scientists The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is a nonprofit science advocacy organization based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. Anne Kapuscinski, Professor of Environment ...

for his response to the panel investigation and criticism from anti-abortion protestors. He started a surgical residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2015. Vanderbilt put Gu on administrative leave for two weeks in November 2017, and placed him on probation until March 2018. Gu said this was due to his tweets opposing

white supremacy White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...

; Vanderbilt was unable to comment on personnel matters but stated that the leave was based on Vanderbilt's policies, including those concerning use of social media. Gu received notice from Vanderbilt in May 2018 confirming that his residency contract would not be renewed after the third year of what is usually a five-year residency; the fourth year would have started on July 1, 2018. In a letter addressed to Gu, VUMC cited performance issues—as it did when he was placed on leave. A May 17 letter to Gu from VUMC General Counsel Michael Regier, which was obtained by the ''Duke Chronicle'', cited "lack of sufficient improvement in performance and conduct in key areas." He has used his position as a physician to assist in his activist efforts such as with cannabis legalization.

Twitter

Gu was noted for having a vocal presence on the site

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, where he advocated for

social justice Social justice is justice in relation to the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society where individuals' rights are recognized and protected. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has of ...

causes, and for his critical commentary of then-U.S. president

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

. Gu was one of seven Twitter users who filed a lawsuit against U.S. President Donald Trump in July 2017 after being blocked from Trump's personal @realDonaldTrump account in the case ''

'', arguing that the block violated his rights under the

First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

. The case was decided in the plaintiffs' favor on May 23, 2018. Gu's use of Twitter made him the target of harassment by Donald Trump supporters as well as brought him into conflict with his employers and other Twitter users.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gu, Eugene 1986 births Living people Duke University School of Medicine alumni Stanford University alumni People associated with Planned Parenthood Activists from San Francisco Activists from Nashville, Tennessee Vanderbilt University people Fetal surgery American people of Chinese descent Physicians from California 21st-century American physicians