He graduated from Garden City High School in New York in 1963. He received a B.A. in Physics from Princeton University in 1967, a Ph.D. in Physics from M.I.T. in 1973, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1980. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1987. His research has investigated how cells react to DNA damage from radiation. He has also developed electroporation techniques, a method for pulsed-field electrophoresis, and methods for analyzing microarray data . He received the Clinical Scientist Award for Translational Research from Burroughs-Wellcome Fund (Wellcome Trust), and the Rita Allen Award from the Rita Allen Foundation .
His younger brother Steven Chu is a Nobel laureate and the twelfth and current United States Secretary of Energy in the Obama Administration. His other younger brother is the attorney Morgan Chu.
Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA Apr 24, 2001; 98: 5116-5121. 'Times Cited: 2902
Chu G, Hayakawa H, Berg P "Electroporation For The Efficient Transfection Of Mammalian-Cells With DNA" Nucleic Acids Research 15 (3): 1311-1326 Feb 11 1987 Times Cited: 697
Chu G, "Cellular-Responses To Cisplatin - The Roles Of Dna-Binding Proteins And Dna-Repair" Journal Of Biological Chemistry 269 (2): 787-790 Jan 14 1994