Lu Lu, MD

Education

• MD Institution: Nantong Medical College, Nantong, China
• Postdoctoral: Columbia University, New York, NY; University of Tennessee, Memphis, TN

Research Interests

I use recombinant inbred (RI) mice and microarrays to study the several brain-related genetic problems. RI mice are an excellent resource for these studies and allow us to examine multiple types of data in a reference population. In addition to using the currently available RI strains, we have recently developed 45 additional BXD RI strains using two advanced intercross lines between C57BL/6 and DBA/2 mice as progenitors. In combination with the previously developed BXD strains this is the largest RI strain set in existence.

Many problems can be efficiently addressed using RI mice. One of these questions is the mechanism of genetic control over brain architecture. In order to study this issue we have collected extensive neuroanatomical and gene expression data in the brains of BXD strains. Because all animals are isogenic, we can collect data of the same and differing types from multiple animals and meaningfully relate each data set. This allows us to determine, for instance, whether steady state expression of a gene is related to an observed phenotype, for instance an aspect of brain architecture or a behavioral difference between strains.

Another fascinating problem that we are able to address with RI lines is the modulation of transcriptional control in response to environmental influences. Using the LXS and BXD RI strains we are examining the modulation of transcriptional control in response to alcohol, stress, and the combination of alcohol and stress treatments. By examining modulatory changes in response to these conditions, we hope to gain insight into the molecular substrates underlying differences in ethanol and stress responses?a question thought to be very important in understanding human alcoholism.

Representative Publications

• Lu L, Huang J, Xu F, Xiao Z, Wang J, Zhang B, David NV, Arends D, Gu W, Ackert-Bicknell C, Sabik OL, Farber CR, Quarles LD, Williams RW. Genetic Dissection of Femoral and Tibial Microarchitecture. JBMR Plus. 2019 Nov 11;3(12):e10241. doi: 10.1002/jbm4.10241. eCollection 2019 Dec. PubMed PMID: 31844829; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6894729.
• Krummel M, Blish C, Kuhns M, Cadwell K, Oberst A, Goldrath A, Ansel KM, Chi H, O'Connell R, Wherry EJ, Pepper M; Future Immunology Consortium. Universal Principled Review: A Community-Driven Method to Improve Peer Review. Cell. 2019 Dec 12;179(7):1441-1445. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.11.029. PubMed PMID: 31835023.
• Dean KR, Hammamieh R, Mellon SH, Abu-Amara D, Flory JD, Guffanti G, Wang K, Daigle BJ Jr, Gautam A, Lee I, Yang R, Almli LM, Bersani FS, Chakraborty N, Donohue D, Kerley K, Kim TK, Laska E, Young Lee M, Lindqvist D, Lori A, Lu L, Misganaw B, Muhie S, Newman J, Price ND, Qin S, Reus VI, Siegel C, Somvanshi PR, Thakur GS, Zhou Y; PTSD Systems Biology Consortium, Hood L, Ressler KJ, Wolkowitz OM, Yehuda R, Jett M, Doyle FJ 3rd, Marmar C. Multi-omic biomarker identification and validation for diagnosing warzone-related post-traumatic stress disorder. Mol Psychiatry. 2019 Sep 10. doi: 10.1038/s41380-019-0496-z. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 31501510.
• Smith A, Pierre JF, Makowski L, Tolley E, Lyn-Cook B, Lu L, Vidal G, Starlard-Davenport A. Distinct microbial communities that differ by race, stage, or breast-tumor subtype in breast tissues of non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White women. Sci Rep. 2019 Aug 16;9(1):11940. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-48348-1. PubMed PMID: 31420578; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6697683.
• Hirono K, Saito K, Munkhsaikhan U, Xu F, Wang C, Lu L, Ichida F, Towbin JA, Purevjav E. Familial Left Ventricular Non-Compaction Is Associated With a Rare p.V407I Variant in Bone Morphogenetic Protein 10. Circ J. 2019 Jul 25;83(8):1737-1746. doi: 10.1253/circj.CJ-19-0116. Epub 2019 Jun 26. PubMed PMID: 31243186.
• Terenina EE, Cavigelli S, Mormede P, Zhao W, Parks C, Lu L, Jones BC, Mulligan MK. Genetic Factors Mediate the Impact of Chronic Stress and Subsequent Response to Novel Acute Stress. Front Neurosci. 2019 May 21;13:438. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2019.00438. eCollection 2019. PubMed PMID: 31164799; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6536627.

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