UConn Health Center Mourns the Death of One of its Associate Professors

An associate professor of immunology at the University of Connecticut Health Center Graduate School died Monday after spending six weeks in Hartford Hospital's intensive care unit following a serious one-car accident on Old Farms Road in Avon.

Dr. Cato T. Laurencin, vice president for health affairs at the UConn Health Center, and Dr. Leo Lefrançois, chairman of the Department of Immunology, sent an internal letter Tuesday informing faculty, staff and students, as well as John Dempsey Hospital patients that Carol Wu, "an accomplished investigator in the Department of Immunology," had died the previous afternoon.

"Dr. Wu was an Assistant Professor of Immunology, where her research made significant contributions to our understanding of the pathogenesis of herpesvirus infection and of allergic asthma," the letter read. "Her recent work was focused on elucidating how immune control of cytomegalovirus infection evolved in early life."

Wu was on the School of Medicine Admissions Committee for 11 years, serving as both an interviewer and committee member, according to the letter. In 2010, she was hired as director of the immunobiology course as well as associate director of the Immunology Graduate Program.

"Her personal commitment to performing laboratory research continued from the day of her arrival in Dr. John Shanley's laboratory in Infectious Disease in 1992 until the day of her accident on May 6, 2011," the letter read. "Our heartfelt sympathy goes to Dr. Wu’s family, colleagues and friends during this difficult time."

Wu, 52, of Woodhaven Drive in Avon, was critically injured May 6 after her car hit an 8-foot-tall column just after 7 p.m.

Avon Volunteer Fire Department personnel extricated the unconscious driver from her 2003 Honda Civic. She was given supplemental oxygen to help her breathe and was transported to Hartford Hospital in a Life Star helicopter.

Wu died of blunt, traumatic injuries, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Farmington.

The North Central Municipal Accident Reconstruction Team, which includes Avon, Canton, Simsbury, Farmington, Granby, Suffield, Bloomfield and Windsor police officers, is still investigating the cause of the accident.