Dr. Lu received his Ph.D. in Genetics and Development from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas with Dr. Eric Olson. His graduate work focused on transcriptional regulation in muscle and cardiovascular development and diseases. In 2000, he joined Dr. Philip Leder's laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, where he studied molecular mechanisms underlying cancer. Dr. Lu joined the faculty at the University of Florida in 2005. |
|
The major research interest in the laboratory is toward understanding the connection between chromatin regulation and cancer. Genes are packaged in the nucleus as chromatin, therefore the chromatin structures determine gene transcription. Aberrant gene expression due to alterations in chromatin structure contributes to diseases such as cancer. We are particularly interested in chromatin regulators involved in control of cell proliferation. We performed a genome-wide RNAi screen and identified at least two types of chromatin factors as novel regulators of E2F, a transcription factor critical for cell proliferation and tumorigenesis. These factors form complexes with E2F and restrain E2F transcriptional activity. Interestingly, mutations in these proteins cause abnormal cell overgrowth. We are extending this study to elucidate the mechanisms how these factors modulate chromatin and transcription and to address their functional roles in embryonic development and tumor suppression by generating and characterizing corresponding mouse mutants. |
|
Assistant Professor