Dr. Zhiwei Hu is an associate professor and a member of the Translational Therapeutics Program at OSUCCC – James, where his research focuses on identifying novel targets and developing corresponding targeted therapies for solid cancers, hematological malignancies, and other unmet noncancerous diseases. Dr. Hu is a tumor immunologist with 28+ years of experience in tumor immunology, neovascular-, cancer stem cell- and cancer cell-targeting immunotherapy (such as monoclonal antibody, phage display antibody, antibody engineering, chimeric antigen receptor modified natural killer cells), gene therapy, and photodynamic therapy (PDT). Dr. Hu has a track record of invention (filed through Yale University and The Ohio State University), development and preclinical evaluation of novel targeted therapeutic agents. While at Yale University (1998-2012), he co-invented the first tissue factor (TF)-targeting antibody-like agent, called ICON (a factor VII-IgG1Fc immunoconjugate), with the ability to target cancer cells and tumor neovasculature for the treatment of several solid cancers. Dr. Hu holds 5 issued US and 20 issued international patents on ICON and its uses. As a neovascular-targeting agent, ICON has shown efficacy and safety in preclinical studies for treating angiogenesis-dependent diseases, notably cancer, wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and endometriosis, as well as in a completed phase I trial in patients with ocular melanoma and a completed phase II trial in patients with AMD. In 2010, Dr. Hu co-developed TF-targeted photodynamic therapy for cancer and AMD at Yale University. After moving to The Ohio State University (OSU) in 2013, Hu lab improved ICON with enhanced efficacy and safety profiles. As a result, Dr. Hu invented the second and third generations of TF-targeting ICONs (called L-ICON1 and L-ICON3, respectively, for light chain ICONs; PCT/US patent pending, OSU). In 2020, Ohio State licensed the L-ICON3 technology to form a new startup company, Eikonoklastes Therapeutics, of which he serves as Scientific Co-Founder. In addition, Hu lab reported, for the first time, that TF is a novel target for cancer stem cells and that TF is a novel surface target in 50-85% of patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Using the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) approach, Hu lab invented a new line of TF-targeted immunotherapy, namely TF-recognized CAR-engineered NK and T cells (TF-CAR-NK/T) (PCT/US patent pending, OSU). Hu lab showed that TF-CAR-NK cells are effective and safe as monotherapy for treatment of TNBC and multiple myeloma and can be used as ADCC effector in combination therapy with L-ICON and antibodies. These TF-targeted immunotherapies have the potential to target pathological angiogenesis-dependent diseases (notably cancer, AMD, and endometriosis) and macrophage-associated diseases (notably atherosclerosis, HIV, and Ebola viral infections). Dr. Hu’s long-term research goal is to develop and translate novel, more effective, and less toxic targeted therapies as monotherapy and combination therapy (with currently approved clinical therapies) into the clinic for these unmet clinical problems.