Ru-Chih Chow Huang

Ru-Chih Chow Huang (; April 2, 1932 – May 31, 2026) was a Taiwanese-American biology professor at Johns Hopkins University. She was a biochemist who worked with James F. Bonner and Doug Fambrough to characterize and discern functions for nuclear histones in the early 1960s when the field lacked a consensus on types and functions of individual histone proteins. and of viral gene regulation.

Early life and education Ru-Chih Chow was born April 2, 1932, in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. She moved to the US in 1954. She was inspired to become a scientist after reading a biography of Marie Curie. She received a B.S. from National Taiwan University in 1953, a M.S. from Virginia Tech in 1956, and her Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1960. She served as Chairman of a Gordon Research Conference in 1980, Chairman of the Board of Science Counselors of the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, from 1980 to 1984, a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Molecular Biology, Taiwan from 1987 to 1988, and a member of the Science Advisory Board of the National Cancer Institute. In the interview recognizing her paper as a Citation Classic, Huang said, "The work ... was done when little was known about the molecular approach to gene expression. The term chromatin as an interphase state of chromosome was beginning to be accepted as a biochemical working usage. The isolation and purification of chromatin was still approached with more art than science, until the pea embryo was chosen." Bonner got funding from NSF and other places to organize a conference on histones, trying to include all known histone researchers. and molecular biology of aging cells.

He was co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of Erimos Pharmacueticals, LLC of Houston, TX. This firm is developing her recently discovered mutation-insensitive antiviral and anticancer compounds which are derivatives of the plant lignan NDGA. This work was somewhat controversial when she first took it up.

Awards 2000, The World Journal Most Notable 100 North American Chinese of the Century