Hou received his bachelors in biochemistry from Nanjing University, China. He received in Masters (with distinction) and Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh. He did his postdoc in cell biology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hou has been at Washington University since 2009. He is a renowned expert in studying paracellular channels in different tissues, has published a number of high profile papers in this field, and has recently pioneered a novel approach for high resolution measurement of the paracellular channel permeability.