News & Achievements
July 2026, Our summer undergrates Ella Wurtzbacher (BioREU) and Xiaoyin Zhang (iSURE) did a great job presenting at the Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium! Our summer RC3 high schooler Esmeralda Armenta-Bedolla did a great job presenting at the RC3 Symposium!
June 2026, Lu lab welcomes wonderful summer researchers, including Ella Wurtzbacher from the BioREU program; Jimmy Wu, Yangyi Zhang, Xiaoyin Zhang, Xin Xiong from the iSURE program; Esmeralda Armenta-Bedolla from RC3 high school program (Harper Cancer Research Institute). It is our great privilege to work with you! Thank you all for your contribution to cancer research and for bringing all the fun to our lab!
June 2026, Ying Yin has been selected as a Graduate Justice Fellow at the Institute for Social Concerns for the 2026–2027 academic year. It is a wonderful recognition of Ying's hard work and academic commitment. Congratulations, Ying!
May 2026, Congratulations to Maggie Zhao for winning the Paul F. Ware, M.D., Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award!
April 2026, Congratulations to Dr. Yan Liu for winning the VHL Alliance Postdoctoral Fellowship (2026-2028)! Yan was the first ever postdoc fellow awarded by VHL Alliance. What an honor! Read more about it: https://vhl.org/introducing-the-2026-vhl-alliance-grant-recipients/
April 2026, Congratulation Dr. Loan Duong for her successful dissertation defense and earning her PhD!
Apr 2026, Yujing Qin received a 2026 BIPH Summer Graduate Fellowship. Congratulations, Yujing!
Apr 2026, Oliver Wardhana received national Goldwater Research Scholarship.
Nov 2025, Congratulations to Dr. Guoqiang “Orson” Liu on his successful dissertation defense and earning his PhD!
Nov 2025, Lu lab invited Prof. Xue-yan He (Cell Biology and Physiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis) to give the Cell seminar – Conquering Stress in Cancer: Understanding the "Stressed Gut Feeling”.
Oct/Nov 2025, Dr. Lu was invited to give a talk at the Molecular Biology and Genetics Program, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey.
Oct 2025, Congratulations to Dr. Ravi Dhiman for winning the 3rd place in the Postdoc Lightning Talk Competition! Read more here: https://biology.nd.edu/news-and-events/news/biological-sciences-postdocs-shine-at-college-of-science-lightning-talk-competition/
Oct 2025, Lu lab welcomes second round of rotation students: Qi Chu (BIOS), Hill Addison (BIOS), and Bailey Frazier (IBMS). Welcome to Lu lab! Hope you enjoy your rotation here!
Aug 2025, Lu lab welcomes first round of rotation students: Rong Wang (BIOS), Mohamed Jedoui (IBMS), and Xianglin Shi (IBMS). Welcome to Lu lab! Hope you enjoy your rotation here!
Aug 22, 2025, Congratulations for Dr. Yaoyin Li for his invited presentation at the SBUR Summer Trainee Webinar Series.
July 23, 2025, BioREU student Jacob Edwards won Best Data for the poster presentation. Congratulations!
Jul 21, 2025, Xin Lu received Innovation Award, Coaches vs. Cancer Night of the Stars, American Cancer Society
Summer 2025,We are excited to host 12 undergraduate students for summer research, which is a historical high for Lu lab! The bright young scholars include four Notre Dame undergrads. Ethan Dimaano, Maggie Zhao, Xiaotian Chi, Soleil Tarver, supported by CoS-SURF: Jacob Edwards (Francis Marion University), supported by BioREU; Grace McGrath (University of Galway), supported by Biseach Initiative between Harper Cancer Research Institute and University of Galway; Yuan Tang, Zhaoyu Gu, Xinjin Du, Wentao Xu, Yushen Meng, Haoyu Sun, supported by iSURE program. Welcome everyone! And we are grateful to the support from CoS-SURF, BioREU, iSURE, and Biseach Initiative.
June, 2025, Dr. Xin Lu joined a team of professors at Harper Cancer Research Institute to attend and present at the Biseach Symposium at Galway, Ireland, as a step to help materialize the Biseach Initiative. See the link for photos and story
May 14, 2025, Xin Lu was invited to give seminar at Princeton University
View Seminar through this Link
Apr 29, 2025, Our 2024 publication “Ketogenic Diet Alters the Epigenetic and Immune Landscape of Prostate Cancer to Overcome Resistance to Immune Checkpoint Blockade Therapy ” (Murphy et al, Cancer Research, 2024) was selected by the AACR journal editors as part of AACR’s cross-journal collection of articles on Immunooncology to be featured at the 2025 AACR Annual Meeting.
Mar. 2025Congratulations to Dr. Yaoyin Li for winning the BELS Supplemental Professional Development Awards for Postdoctoral Researchers for his project "PICET-Exo: Engineered Exosomes for Targeted Penile Cancer Immunotherapy
Apr 14, 2025, Guoqiang Liu was selected to deliver an oral presentation at 2025 Harper Cancer Research Day and he won the travel grant! Congratulations, Orson!
Apr 11, 2025, Lu lab was excited to invite Cell seminar speaker, Dr. Jianzhu Chen from MIT. Thank you, Dr. Chen, for an intriguing seminar! Our graduate student Guoqiang Liu presented his work in the Cell seminar too!
Apr 1, 2025, Dr. Xin Lu was invited to give a guest lecture at the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) YI Microenvironment Immunology WG: “Ketogenic Supplementation: A new hope to overcome prostate cancer resistance to immunotherapy?
Mar 31, 2025, Guoqiang Liu was selected to deliver an oral presentation at BIPH 2025 Annual Symposium “Using Innovative Approaches to Improve Health Equity.
Mar 2025, We thank Warren Family Research Center for Drug Discovery and Development for granting us an internal grant to conduct project “Enhancing Cancer Immunotherapy By Pharmacologically Targeting PMN-MDSCs”. This project is led by graduate student Adrian Chao.
Mar 2025, Dr. Xin Lu was invited to visit and give a talk at Fu Jen Catholic University (天主教輔仁大學) of Taiwan.
Feb 2025, Dr. Xin Lu is one of the co-PIs for the IMPACT (Immunoengineering Microgravity Platform for Accessible Cell-based Therapies) project of the Notre Dame’s Bioengineering & Life Sciences Initiative. To read more about this project, please see this link.
Jan 22 2025, Lu lab invited Prof. Ping Mu as the seminar speaker for the Department of Biological Sciences seminars. “The Two Faces of Prostate Cancer: Plasticity and Heterogeneity”. Dr. Mu, we appreciate your visit and giving us this tremendous opportunity of learning!
Jan 10, 2025, Dr. Xin Lu co-chaired the committee to organize the BIOS scientific retreat with theme “Excellence, Diversity, and Unity in Biology”. Several lab members (Yaoyin Li, Shiyu Wang, Ziyu Zeng) presented posters.
Dec 6 2024, Lu lab was excited to invite Cell seminar speaker, Dr. Peiwen Chen from Cleveland Clinic. Thank you, Dr. Chen, for an intriguing seminar!
Nov 12 2024, Miss Yuting Zhang successfully defended her thesis and earned her PhD degree from Notre Dame. Congratulations, Dr. Yuting Zhang! Best wishes to your postdoc career in University of Toronto! Lu lab had farewell party after the defense.
Nov 20 2024, Dr. Xin Lu was invited to give a talk “Prostate cancer immunosuppression and how to conquer it” at the French Association on Prostate Cancer Research (ARTP) 33rd Annual Meeting. Paris, France.
Nov 4 2024, Dr. Xin Lu was invited to visit and deliver the Seminar in Cell, Molecular and Cancer Biology at IU Bloomington. Seminar title: “Targeting Intrinsic and Extrinsic Mechanisms of Cancer Immune Evasion”.
Nov 1 2024, Lu lab Postdoc Fellow Dr. Yaoyin Li delivered the Cell seminar.
Nov 2024, We appreciate Harper Cancer Research Institute for granting us the 2024 Innovation Fund to conduct the project to screening new drugs to target immunosuppressive neutrophils. This project is led by graduate student Adrian Chao.
Oct 2024, Prof. Xin Lu was invited to present a talk at the 16th International VHL Medical Symposium in Milan, Italy. This work was highlighted by VHLA: https://vhl.org/3-things-you-might-have-missed-at-the-vhl-medical-symposium-in-milan/
Sep 2024, We appreciate the funding from CureFA to support our new research in Friedreich’s Ataxia. This project is led by graduate student Ying Yin (Clare).
Aug 2024, Welcome rotation student Emily Golba from IBMS program! Emily will work with Adrian for a project on bone metastatic prostate cancer.
Summer 2024, Lu lab is happy to host a number of undergraduate students for summer research, including Musab Shaikh from REU program, four iSURE students (Yuxin Bai, Caiyue Xu, Xiaorui Liu, Linchuan Jia) from high-ranked universities in China, Sam Tullis from University of Chicago, and Xingjian "Eric" Yang from Grinnell College.
June 2024, Congratulations to our rising 2nd year BIOS graduate student Shiyu Wang for being awarded with the HCRI Interdisciplinary Interface Training Program (IITP) fellowship to support her project “Enhancing CAR-T Immunotherapy with Isoform-Selective HSP90 Inhibition”. Our lab appreciates the tremendous support from HCRI and Shiyu’s secondary mentor Dr. Brian Blagg.
May 2024, Lu lab received VHL Alliance Research Grant to support our research in VHL-deficient renal cell carcinoma. Thank you, VHL Alliance!
Apr 2024, Lu lab was excited to invite Cell seminar speaker, Dr. Jiaoti Huang from Duke University. Thank you, Dr. Huang, for an intriguing and enlightening seminar! Our graduate student Loan Duong presented her work in the Cell seminar too!
April 2024, Our paper on ketogenic diet in enhancing immunotherapy published in Cancer Research was featured on the News page of College of Science (https://news.nd.edu/news/component-of-keto-diet-plus-immunotherapy-may-reduce-prostate-cancer/). Congratulations Sean, Sharif, Dailin and the team!
April 2024, Congratulations to Ziyu Zeng on being selected as this year's Rebecca Hizer Memorial Fellowship recipient! This fellowship is based on outstanding performance of the awardee of HCRI IITP award.
April 2024, Lu lab presented several studies at Harper Cancer Research Institute’s 12th annual Cancer Research Day, including Ziyu Zeng’s oral presentation, and Shiyu and Loan’s poster presentations.
April 2024, Ziyu Zeng won Oral Presentation and $500 Travel Grant from Harper Cancer Research Institute for Harper Cancer Research Institute’s 12th annual Cancer Research Day.
April 2024, Xuechun Wang successfully defended her thesis and earned her Master of Science degree from Notre Dame. Congratulations, Xuechun!!
Mar 2024, Dr. Lu was invited to give a talk at the Serican Academy of Urology, Monthly Seminar Series
Mar 2024, Dr. Lu was invited to give a webinar at the MedChemExpress Webinar series https://www.medchemexpress.com/webinar-XinLu.html
Mar 2024, Dr. Xin Lu gave a talk titled “Finding new treatments for rare cancers with genetic modeling and mechanism studies” and joined the panel discussion on rare cancers in the 15th Annual Conference for Advancing Rare Disease Research, University of Notre Dame.
Feb 2024, Congratulations to Sean Murphy to successfully defend his dissertation and graduate with PhD! Sean’s paper is in press at Cancer Research. He will work as Associate Clinic Trial Manager in Medpace and have impact on the patient care in oncology. Best wishes to Sean and his family! .
Feb 2024, Dr. Xin Lu was invited to give seminars at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (hosted by Dr. Chi-Ying F. Huang) and Biomedical Translation Research Center (BioTReC) of Academia Sinica (hosted by Dr. Mi-Hua Tao).
Jan 2024, Lu lab was excited to invite Cell seminar speaker, Dr. Jiaoti Huang from Duke University. Thank you, Dr. Huang, for an intriguing and enlightening seminar! Our graduate student Loan Duong presented her work in the Cell seminar too!
Jan 2024, We appreciate the Susan G. Komen Hackathon Challenge Grant to support our project “Big data-guide metabolic targeting of metastasis-promoting immune cells.
Jan 2024, Lu lab welcomes 3rd round rotation student Ijeoma Asilebo, from IBMS program!
Oct 2023, We appreciate the IUSCCC TMM New Technologies Shark Tank Pilot Funding Award to support our project in pancreatic cancer. This project is led by Loan Duong.
Oct 2023, Dr. Lu co-chaired the session “Urological cancer immunology and metabolism” and delivered the talk “Immunosuppression in GU Cancer and How to Conquer it” at the first Serican Academy of Urology (SAU) annual retreat, Cancun, Mexico. Dr. Lu served at the Educadtion & Conference Committee. SAU is a nonprofit organization of urological physicians & scientists.
Oct 2023, Lu lab welcomes two 2nd round rotation students: Samuel Adams and Yaning Xi!
Oct 2023, Lu lab celebrates the publication of an important paper for the lab, Neutrophils resist ferroptosis and promote breast cancer metastasis through aconitate decarboxylase 1. Cell Metabolism, led by our postdoc fellow Yun Zhao and labmates Zhonshun Liu, Guoqiang Liu and Yuting Zhang. It was the featured article of Volume 35 Issue 10 of Cell Metabolism, the leading journal of the field of metabolism. See the news by College of Science.
Aug 2023, Lu lab welcomes three 1st round rotation students: Shiyu Wang, Minzhi Liang, Adrian Chao!
Aug 2023, Dr. Xin Lu was invited to give a seminar titled “Intrinsic and extrinsic immunosuppression in cancer” at the Department of Immuno-Oncology, Beckman Research Institute, City of Hope.
July to Aug 2023, Lu lab welcomes four iSURE students Shiying Jia, Xinyi Huang, Ying Yin and Yunfeiyang Liu to carry out summer research in our lab!
June, 2023, Lu lab and the University of Galway’s Lambe Institute and the Biseach Initiative received the funding from the Naughton Faculty Research Accelerator Program. We appreciate the support from Naughton! For more please read this news release from College of Science.
June, 2023, Congratulations to our rising 2nd year BIOS graduate student Ziyu Zeng for being awarded with the HCRI Interdisciplinary Interface Training Program (IITP) fellowship to support her project “Cross-Species Single-Cell Analysis Uncovers Evolution of Neutrophil Heterogeneity in Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer”! Our lab appreciates the tremendous support from HCRI and Ziyu’s secondary mentor Dr. Jun Li.
June, 2023, Xin was invited to give a seminar for the Genetics and Genomics Seminar Series at University of Alabama School of Medicine.
May, 2023, Lu lab publication in 2020 in BMC Medical Genetics was featured in The Scientist, “Silent” Mutations Make Noise In Cancer”.
May, 2023, three graduate students (Sean, Loan, Ziyu) and one postdoc fellow (Yan Liu) from Lu lab attended and presented at the Midwest Tumor Microenvironment Conference at Purdue University.
May, 2023, three graduate students (Sean, Xuechun, Orson) from Lu lab attended and presented at the Metabolic and Immunologic Impacts on Ferroptosis and Cell Death Symposium at University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center.
May, 2023, Dr. Xin Lu received Faculty Excellent in Research Award from Department of Biological Sciences. Xin appreciates this “faculty researcher of the year in BIOS” award very much and dedicates this award to Lu lab members who work diligently to push the frontier of cancer research. Let’s work hard to continue our productivity in the battle against cancer.
April, 2023, our undergraduate student Rachel Whitehead was invited to speak at the Glynn Honors Program Senior Colloquium to present her thesis research work.
April, 2023, we appreciate the College of Science news coverage about our Science Immunology paper.
April, 2023, Congratulations to Yuting Zhang and Orson Liu for receiving BIPH 2023 Summer Fellowship! We appreciate the support from BIPH. https://precisionhealth.nd.edu/news-events/news/berthiaume-institute-welcomes-its-2023-cohort-of-fellows/
April, 2023, Dr. Xin Lu was invited to visit Department of Toxicology and Cancer Biology at University of Kentucky and give the seminar “Prostate Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy: What Mouse Models Have Taught Us”.
April, 2023, Lu lab invited a world leading cancer immunotherapy scientist, Dr. Weiping Zou, as a seminar speaker at BIOS.
March, 2023, the 4th Annual Science Communication Day was held at the Indiana State Capitol, hosted by the Science Policy Initiative at Notre Dame. The event saw graduate students from various parts of the state come together to showcase their research to lawmakers, with the aim of forging new collaborative relationships and influencing policy decisions. During the event, based on the current state of prostate cancer and kidney cancer (VHL disease) in Indiana, Xuechun and Orson from the Lu Lab presented their research about the innovative therapy to the senators and house representatives.
March, 2023, Dr. Lu was invited to give two talks about the lab’s recent work on Pygo2 in cancer immunotherapy. (1) The inaugural seminar series at the newly established Serican Academy of Urology. (2) Mini-symposium talk at 2023 the Japanese Society of Medical Oncology Annual Meeting (JSMO2023).
March, 2023, Our paper “Targeting the chromatin effector Pygo2 promotes cytotoxic T cell responses and overcomes immunotherapy resistance in prostate cancer” was published in Science Immunology, a leading journal in the immunology field (2022 impact factor 30.63). Please see three illustrations below. Feel free to download PDF reprint from: https://www.science.org/stoken/author-tokens/ST-1068/full.
Illustration #1. The Chinese mythology warrior Monkey King (“CTL”, cytotoxic T lymphocyte) fighting the dragon (“cancer cell”), with dragon employing the Pygo2-Kit-Ido1 weapon and Monkey King empowered by Pygo2 inhibitor. Credit to Hawraa Al Janabi (our talented undergraduate student and a co-author of the paper)
Illustration #2. Cartoon illustration of how Pygo2 inside cancer cells orchestrates the Pygo2-Kit-Ido1 axis to resist killing from cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL). Pygo2 inhibitor JBC117 abrogates this axis and upholds immunotherapies such as ICB, ACT and MDSC inhibitor. Credit to Yini Zhu (1st author).
Illustration #3. Schematic illustration of Pygo2 immuno-modulatory function and therapeutic opportunity in prostate cancer. (Pygo2 binds to H3K4me2/3 and engages CBP/p300 and p53 to activate Sp1 expression. Sp1 in turn upregulates Kit which induces Ido1 to impair cytotoxic T cells. Therapeutically, Pygo2 inhibition decelerates prostate tumor growth and synergizes with different classes of immunotherapeutics to eradicate prostate cancer). Taken from a figure in the paper.
March, 2023, Congratulations to Rachel Whitehead to win the John M. and Mary Jo Boler Rare Disease Research Award in the Rare Disease Research Symposium on March 3-4, 2023! We appreciate the recognition and support from Boler Family and CRND!
March, 2023, Dr. Lu served as a Team Lead for Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Hackathon Challenge 2023, hosted at the University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW) in Dallas. Dr. Lu’s team won the Advocate Choice Winner award! The project#2 “Define and compare metabolic states of cell types found in the breast tumor microenvironment” was proposed by Dr. Lu and selected by Komen as one of the three projects for the hackathon. In total 9 teams with over 50 scientists competed in the hackathon.
Feburary, 2023, Wiley® selected Yini Zhu’s publication “CHD1 and SPOP synergistically protect prostate epithelial cells from DNA damage” (The Prostate, PMID: 33022763; DOI: 10.1002/pros.24080) as a top cited article in 2021-2022. Congratulations to Yini!
Feburary, 2023, Lu lab was excited to invite two Cell seminar speakers, Dr. Xiaoping Bao from Purdue University and Dr. Richard Carpenter from IUSM Bloomington. Our graduate students Yuting Zhang and Xuechun Wang present their work in the Cell seminar too!
December, 2022, Welcome Xuechun Wang and Ziyu Zeng as new PhD students!
November 11, 2022, Congratulations to Dr. Sharif Rahmy for successfully defending his thesis and officially becoming a PhD! Equally exciting, Dr. Rahmy started a job as a Senior Scientist at AstraZeneca. Lu lab wishes him and his family the best for all future endeavors!
November 2022, Lu lab invited two excellent professors in the field of prostate cancer, Dr. Xiaohong Li (University of Toledo) and Dr. Xiuping Yu (Louisiana State University), to give virtual seminars of the Cell Biology seminar series at Notre Dame. We learned a lot from Dr. Li and Dr. Yu! Our graduate students, Guoqiang Liu and Loan Duong, gave the accompanying talks about their research.
October, 2022, Sean Murphy presented a poster at the AACR Special Conference: Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy held on October 21-24, 2022 at Boston, MA.
October 27, 2022, Ariana and Eun Suh present in COS Fall Undergraduate Research Fair (FURF). Great job!
October 26, 2022, Congratulations to Dr. Yini Zhu for successfully defending his thesis and officially becoming a PhD! Dr. Zhu is going back to his home country and work as a senior scientist in a leading CRO company to contribute his expertise learned from Notre Dame to the biomedical world. Lu lab wishes him and his family the best for all future endeavors!
Oct 2022, Guoqiang Liu gave oral presentation at IBMS retreat.
Oct 2022, Dr. Xin Lu was invited to give a talk at IUSCCC Cancer Research Day. Lu lab research was very well received by the IUSCCC community.
Sept 2022, We welcome new graduate students in the lab: Xuechun Wang (1st year BIOS, joined), Lynn Wang (1st year IBMS, rotation) and Ziyu Zeng (1st year BIOS, rotation). Welcome to Notre Dame, and welcome to Lu lab!
Aug 2022, Dr. Xin Lu is one of the two recipients of the inaugural BBA Reviews on Cancer Rising Star award. We deeply appreciate this major recognition of the research work from our lab from BBA Reviews on Cancer. Dr. Lu was also invited to write a review of Lu lab’s work (please read this review here). and join the editorial board of BBA Reviews on Cancer.
July 2022, Sean Murphy won the prestigious NIH Fellow Transition Award (F99/K00)! This is the first time that a graduate student in our lab won a federally funded fellowship. Sean is also among the very few graduate students at Notre Dame to win F99/K00 award from NIH/NCI. Congratulations to Sean! For more info, please see the report at College of Science:
https://science.nd.edu/news/doctoral-student-sean-murphy-awarded-nih-fellow-transition-award/
June 2022, Lu lab hosted Selma Imamovic, a local high school student, as part of the Harper Cancer Research Institute, Research Cures Cancer Corps (RC3) program. Selma worked on a VHL disease project and presented a poster in the Science Fair. Lu lab is passionate about community outreach and service.
June 2022, Dr. Lu joined a number of colleagues from Harper Cancer Research Institute visited the National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland. The goal is to help establish Biseach Initiative, a long-term strategy of faculty and student collaboration for the progression of cancer research. For more information see:
https://kylemore.nd.edu/research/cancer-research-biseach-initiative/
May 2022, Dr. Xin Lu was elected by the board of the Society for Basic Urologic Research (SBUR) as a nominee for the 2022 AUA Research Forum: “Early-Career Investigators Showcase”. Dr. Lu presented the work from his lab (titled “Prostate cancer and penile cancer: Similarity in immunosuppression”) at the AUA 2022 Annual Meeting on May 15, 2022, New Orleans, Louisiana. Background about AUA and this nomination: Founded in 1902, the AUA is a premier urologic association, providing invaluable support to the urologic community. The mission is to promote the highest standards of urological clinical care through education, research and the formulation of health care policy. The 2022 AUA Research Forum: “Early-Career Investigators Showcase” is dedicated to the work of early-career investigators, and is meant to showcase basic, translational, and clinical research at the AUA Annual Meeting. AUA was seeking nominations from international partner societies and associations to identify young researchers who exemplify the best and brightest early-career investigators and lines of research poised to make an impact in urology.
May 2022, Sean Murphy received coverage by his alma mater. Congratulations!
May 2022, Dr. Xin Lu was promoted to associate professor with tenure. With this milestone achieved, Dr. Lu and his lab are more motivated than ever to conduct cutting-edge cancer research with the goal to benefit patients.
May 2022, Sean Murphy won the First Place Prize for his poster presentation in Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center 23rd Annual Scientific Retreat. Congratulations, Sean!
April 2022, Congratulations to Sean Murphy for receiving the 2022 Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Graduate Student Travel Award! This award will support Sean to attend 2022 Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Graduate Student Travel Award 23rd Annual Scientific Retreat.
April 2022, Congratulations to Yuting Zhang for winning a BIPH 2022 Summer Fellowship. We appreciate the support from BIPH.
March 2022, Several graduate students presented their work at HCRI's 10th annual Cancer Research Day, including Sean Murphy (oral), Yini Zhu (poster), Yuting Zhang (poster), Sharif Rahmy (poster), and Loan Duong (poster).
March 2022, Dr. Xin Lu gave a short talk titled “Targeting Basal-Like Prostate Cancer with Antibody-Drug Conjugate as single agent and in combination with immunotherapy” at 2022 Indiana CTSI Retreat at Notre Dame.
March 2022, Congratulations to Sean Murphy for receiving the Exceptional Community Service, receiving $400 Travel Grant and giving an oral presentation on the Harper Cancer Research Day. We appreciate the recognition from HCRI.
February 2022, Xin Lu was invited to give a virtual seminar at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology https://life-sci.hkust.edu.hk/event/lifs-seminar-series-by-prof-xin-lu/
February 2022, Our project on a novel CAR-NK therapy is awarded with an Exceptional Project Grant from Breast Cancer Alliance. The Breast Cancer Alliance is a non-profit organization that supports breast cancer research, breast cancer-related training for medical professionals and efforts to increase access to cancer screenings and treatment for low-income women. We appreciate the support from Breast Cancer Alliance! Links: (1)
https://breastcanceralliance.org/what-we-fund, (2) https://science.nd.edu/news/notre-dame-researchers-awarded-grants-to-study-treatments-for-breast-cancer/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email
February 2022, Our lab invited Dr. Qiufu Ma to give the Cell seminar.
November, 2021, Dr. Xin Lu received the 2021 Young Investigator Award from Society for Basic Urologic Research (SBUR). SBUR, formed in 1986. is the pre-eminent US-based urologic research society. The SBUR Young Investigator Awards are given to SBUR members who are under the age of 45, within 5 years of their first faculty position, and have made significant contributions to Urologic Research. This award is presented annually at the fall meeting to 2-3 scientists. This year, Dr. Lu won the award together with Dr. Irfan Asangani from University of Pennsylvania. During the 2021 SBUR Annual Meeting (Nov 4-7, 2021), Dr. Lu presented an acceptance speech and a seminar entitled "Prostate cancer and penile cancer: Similarity in immunosuppression". Dr. Lu’s laboratory is focused on identifying cancer cell intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms of tumor escape of immune surveillance, particularly in metastatic prostate cancer, breast cancer, and rare cancers (VHL disease, penile cancer). Recent publications from Lu lab firmly establish that immunosuppressive neutrophils (also known as polymorphonuclear myeloid-derived suppressor cells, PMN-MDSCs), play the predominant role in inducing the exhaustion of effector T cells in the tumor microenvironment across multiple solid tumors. A number of mechanisms and targeting strategies of PMN-MDSCs have been reported by the Lu lab (such as CXCR1/2 inhibitor SX-682, tyrosine kinase inhibitor cabozantinib, cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor celecoxib), which may open new avenues to sensitize advanced malignancies to immune checkpoint blockade therapy. Dr. Lu also investigates and develops novel immunotherapeutics and molecularly-targeted therapeutics, including antibody-drug conjugates, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered NK cells and small molecules targeting transcription coactivators that promote metastasis. Dr. Lu’s research at Notre Dame is supported by federal and foundation funding agencies, such as NIH/NCI, Department of Defense, Boler Family Foundation, Walther Cancer Foundation, Susan G. Komen Foundation, American Institute for Cancer Research, Elsa U. Pardee Foundation, Mary Kay Foundation, Indiana-CTSI, and internal funds from centers at Notre Dame such as Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases, Harper Cancer Research Institute, and Warren Family Center for Drug Discovery.
For more information about the award, please visit: https://www.sbur.org/awards-and-lectures
November, 2021, Dr. Xin Lu was invited to give a talk entitled “Prostate Cancer and Penile Cancer: Similarity in Immunosuppression” at the SBUR 2021 Annual Virtual Meeting (https://www.sbur.org/2021-annual-meeting), November 4-7, 2021. Our graduate student Yini Zhu presented a poster in this meeting.
November, 2021, Welcome two rotation graduate students, Lauren Mayer and Samir El Idrissi from IBMS program
October, 29 2021, Lu lab Lu lab invited Dr. Cory Abate-Shen, a world-renowned cancer biologist, to give the virtual Cell seminar.
August 2021, Welcome two rotation students, Wei Ma and Xinrui Yang (both BIOS 1st year)!
July 2021, Congratulations to Loan Duong for receiving the WCF Interdisciplinary Interface Training Program (IITP) award to support her research on CAR-NK therapy for prostate cancer!
May 2021, in AACR Annual Meeting 2021 (virtual week 2), Dr. Lu co-chaired with Dr. Alana Welm (University of Utah) an AACR Tumor Microenvironment Working Group Networking Session “Lab goals and culture” (see info picture below). Dr. Lu serves on the steering committee of the AACR TME Working Group.
April 2021, in AACR Annual Meeting 2021 (virtual week 1), Dr. Lu co-chaired with Dr. Edna Cukierman (Fox Chase Cancer Center) the mini-symposium “Identifying the Puppet Master Cells That Orchestrate Tumor Microenvironmental Players” (MS.TB06.02). This mini-symposium introduced 7 outstanding studies that highlighted the intricate cell-cell interactions in the tumor microenvironment (see a summary slide below):
April 2021, Lu lab invited two outstanding professors in the field of myeloid cells, Dr. Hongbo R. Luo (Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital) and Dr. Paulo C Rodriguez (H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center), to give virtual seminars of the Cell Biology seminar series at Notre Dame.
April 2021, Congratulations to Loan Duong for receiving the 2021 Leiva Graduate Summer Fellowship from Institute for Precision Health at Notre Dame. This fellowship will help Loan to carry out the project on creating novel CAR-NK therapy
March 2021, Louise Medina Bengtsson received 2021 John M. and Mary Jo Boler Rare Disease Research Award from Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases. Congratulations, Louise!
February 2021, Louise Medina Bengtsson received Undergraduate Research Program award from Eck Institute for Global Health. Congratulations, Louise!
January 2021, Our article “Effective combinatorial immunotherapy for penile squamous cell carcinoma” was featured on the Nature Communications Editors’ Highlights webpage of recent research called “Cancer”. www.nature.com/collections/aahajfhafc
December 2020, Congratulations to Dr. Yun Zhao for his 2020 Early Career Investigator Award from METAvivor, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing awareness of advanced breast cancer and equity in research and patient support. Yun is among the 12 awardees nationwide for this prestigious award. https://www.metavivor.org/blog/metavivor-announces-grant-awards-for-metastatic-breast-cancer-research/.
December 2020, The Lu lab and Dr. Feng Guo’s lab at Indiana University (Bloomington) received the Collaboration in Translational Research (CTR) award from Indiana CTSI. This award will help us explore the project - A Tumor-on-a-Chip Platform for Modeling Immuno-Oncology in Prostate Cancer.
October 2020, Lu Lab received an Investigator‐Initiated Grant from American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) to support the research on dietary modulation in cancer immunotherapy. AICR funds research that focuses on how nutrition and lifestyle affect the prevention, treatment, and survival of cancer. This work is mainly driven by Sean Murphy, a BIOS graduate student in Lu lab.
October 29, 2020, Dr. Xin Lu was invited to give a short talk on the VHL projects at the VHL Alliance 14th International Medical/Research Virtual Symposium.
October 15, 2020, Dr. Xin Lu was invited to give a virtual seminar about immunotherapy of genitourinary cancers at the 2020 Fall Seminar Series at Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Louisiana State University Health Shreveport.
October, 2020, Lu lab invited two assistant professors, Dr. Di Zhao and Dr. Yong Cheng, to give virtual seminars of the Cell & Developmental Biology seminar series at Notre Dame.
September 2020, Dr. Xin Lu is highlighted by the Mary Kay Foundation through social media:
https://www.facebook.com/TheMaryKayFoundation/photos/a.2096695753677622/4942043945809441/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CE7Kfr-nRwR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
September 2020, Congratulations to Yanting Luo and Louise for publishing our lab’s first paper that was first-authored by undergraduate students. Their work was highlighted by CRND.
August 2020, Welcome rotation students in fall 2020: Theodore Reed (BIOS), Emilija Aleksandrovic (IBMS) and Loan Duong (IBMS)!
June 2020, Dr. Lu led a panel discussion for Rare Patient Advocacy Symposium.
June 2020, Our publication in Nature Communications is highlighted by College of Science and BIOS, University of Notre Dame.
April 2020 Our publication in Nature Communications is selected by the editors as the top one of the Editors’ Highlights for Therapeutics.
April 2020 Lu lab is excited to receive grants from both National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Department of Defense (DOD) to support our research in prostate cancer metastasis, therapeutics and immunotherapy. These grants will decisively promote our research efforts and bring potential benefits to the patient community. We are deeply grateful to these federal grant agencies.
April 2020 Congratulations to Yanting “Raven” Luo for receiving the Paul F. Ware, M.D. Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award from the Department of Biological Sciences. This award is given to the senior who has been an exemplary undergraduate researcher and has displayed the highest level of leadership and service in the department or college, while maintaining a 3.7 GPA or higher. It is the highest honor given to a graduating senior in the department. We also wish Raven the best for her upcoming exciting graduate studies at Duke University!
April 2020 Guoqiang Liu received the Chemistry-Biochemistry-Biology Interface (CBBI) fellowship, which will support his graduate study for up to 2 years. Both Dr. Xin Lu and Dr. Matthew Webber will provide mentorship to Guoqiang. We are grateful to the CBBI Program. Congratulations, Guoqiang!
March 2020 Our publication on VHL disease (Liu et al. BMC Med Genet. 2020. PMID: 32106822.) was featured and rated as STORY OF THE WEEK by VHL Alliance, the largest organization of the VHL community. https://www.practiceupdate.com/journalscan/66764/75/14?, https://www.practiceupdate.com/C/98025/56?elsca1=emc_enews_topic-alert
Feb 2020 Louise Medina Bengtsson wins 2020-2021 American Association for Cancer Research AACR Undergraduate Scholar Award. This meritorious award includes complimentary registration and a $1,500 stipend each year to support participation in the AACR Annual Meeting 2020 taking place April 24-29 2020, in San Diego, CA and the AACR Annual Meeting 2021, taking place April 10-14, 2021, in Washington, DC.
Feb 2020 Yanting “Raven” Luo is highlighted on College of Science website: https://science.nd.edu/news/biology-major-presents-kidney-cancer-research-at-regional-conference/
Jan 2020 Lu lab is very fortunate and excited to receive the Research Scholar Grant from the American Cancer Society (ACS) to support our research in cancer immunotherapy. This grant is a significant recognition of our research efforts and tremendously promotes our research. We are deeply grateful to the support from ACS!
Dec 2019 Lu lab receives the Collaborative Project Grant from Warren Family Center for Drug Discovery & Development (WFCDD) to support Yuting Zhang’s project “High-Throughput Screening for “Killers” and “Silencers” of Polymorphonuclear Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells (PMN-MDSCs)”. Congratulations to Yuting!
Nov 22-25, 2019 Lu lab attended the Autumn Immunology Conference (AIC) at Chicago. Tianhe Huang and Sharif Rahmy gave oral presentations on their research progress.
Nov 14-15, 2019 Lu lab attended the Midwest Metabolism Meeting at Van Andel Institute. Sean Murphy gave an oral presentation. Yanting Luo and Louise Medina Bengtsson (both are undergraduate students) gave a poster presentation.
Aug 2019 Sharif Rahmy received Walther Cancer Foundation Interdisciplinary Interface Training Program (IITP) award, which will support him for two years. Sharif has Dr. Lu and Dr. Brian Blagg as mentors for his project on combination immunotherapy. We are grateful to Harper Cancer Research Institute and WCF for this opportunity. Congratulations, Sharif!
Aug 2019 Our lab is awarded with the Elsa U. Pardee Foundation Research Grant to support a project to develop novel inhibitors to treat prostate cancer. We are deeply grateful to the support from Elsa U. Pardee Foundation!
July 2019 Our lab is awarded with the 2019 AD&T Discovery Fund to support our collaborative project on new methods of exosome purification for immunotherapy applications. Yini Zhu leads this project.
July 2019 Our lab is awarded with the Mary Kay Foundation Cancer Research Grant to support a project titled “Novel Antibody-Drug Conjugate as Personalized Therapy for Metastatic Breast, Ovarian and Endometrial Cancers”. We express our greatest appreciation to Mary Kay Foundation!
July 2019 Welcome three iSURE students from top universities in China:Tianrui Zhang, Caiqin Wang, and Kaiwen Zhu! They will collaborate with lab members to work on exciting summer research projects.
June 2019 Yanting (Raven) Luo, junior undergraduate student with biology major in Honors Program, won SURF from Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases to support her summer research in the lab! Congratulations!
May 2019 Sharif Rahmy presented a poster “Identifying Functional Drivers for Immunotherapy Resistance” at the IUSCC Cancer Research Day, Indianapolis. Sharif’s presentation was highlighted on the IU website: https://cancer.iu.edu/news-publications/CRD_2019.shtml
May 2019 Midwest Tumor Microenvironment Meeting was successfully held at University of Notre Dame. The meeting hosted over 130 researchers in the tumor microenvironment field in the Midwest. Dr. Xin Lu was a co-organizer. https://harpercancer.nd.edu/news-events/events/2019/05/22/midwest-tumor-microenvironment-conference-2019/
Apr 2019 Dr. Xin Lu invited Dr. Hua Yu to give the Department Seminar titled “STAT3: from fundamental discoveries to clinical translation”. Dr. Yu is Billy and Audrey L. Wilder Professor of Tumor Immunotherapy at City of Hope National Medical Center.
Apr 2019 Dr. Xin Lu was invited as a Grand Rounds Speaker at University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, Iowa City, IA. Dr. Lu gave a talk titled “Decipher and Targeting Immunosuppressive Myeloid Cells in Cancer”.
Apr 2019 Tianhe, Sharif and Yini present their posters in the Harper Cancer Research Day.
Jan 2019 Yanting (Raven) Luo, junior undergraduate student with biology major in Honors Program, won the Research Like A Champion award from Harper Cancer Research Institute! The $12,500 research award can be used to support summer student stipends, research supplies, and travel. Congratulations!
Nov 2018 ND press coverage of Shan and Xi’s PNAS paper
Oct 2018 ND press coverage of Dr. Lu’s winning of a prestigious Susan G. Komen grant
Oct 2018 Welcome Fall 2018, 2nd round rotation students: Armando Marrufo (BIOS), Samantha Golomb (BIOS) and Yuting Zhang (IBMS)!
Oct 2018 Congratulations to Sharif Rahmy for receiving the Riley Graduate Fellowship!
Aug 2018 Congratulations to Shan Feng and Xi Cheng for their PNAS paper being accepted for publication! This is the first independent research publication from the Lu group.
July 2018 Welcome Fall 2018, 1st round rotation students: Guoqiang Liu (IBMS), Meidan Wang (BIOS), and Sean Murphy (BIOS), in order of arrival.
June 2018 Welcome Karolina I. Pellot Ortiz from the University of Puerto Rico and Yuting Yang from Sichuan University (China) as undergraduate researchers in the summer! They are supported through REU and iSURE, respectively.
May 2018 Congratulations to Jacqueline Weinrich, Xiao Han and Andrew Frear to receive COS-SURF, Harper SURF, and CRND SURF, respectively! They will be working in the summer for their undergraduate research projects.
5/18/2018 Congratulations to William Morgenlander and Sam Arroyo to graduate and get bachelor degrees from University of Notre Dame! Also congratulations to William for receiving the Outstanding Biological Scientist Award from the Department of Biological Sciences!
4/1/2018 Welcome Tianhe Huang to join lab as a visiting graduate student!
3/15/2018 Welcome Yini Zhu to join lab as the second Ph.D. student from IBMS program!
12/11/2017 The lab receives an American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant through Harper Cancer Research Institute to support the protein nitration project, carried out by Dr. Shan Feng.
9/1/2017 Welcome Xi Cheng to join lab as a visiting graduate student!
7/18/2017 Dr. Shan Feng is awarded with Walther Cancer Foundation Cancer Cure Ventures Grant for his study on novel antibody-drug conjugate. His project is based on collaboration between Lu lab and the Laboratory of Dr. Matt Webber. Congratulations to Shan! We appreciate funding from Harper Cancer Research Institute/Walther Cancer Foundation.
6/1/2017 Welcome Sharif to become our first PhD graduate student! Keep good coming, Sharif!
5/2/2017 Sam Arroyo wins 2017 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow to support his summer research. Project title: "Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cells in Bone Metastasis of Prostate Cancer". Congratulations! More info here.
5/25/2017 Dr. Xin Lu wins 2017 Indiana CTSI Young Investigator Award. Project title "Novel Antibody-Drug Conjugates for Personalized Therapy of Lethal Prostate Cancer". Congratulations! More info here.
4/10/2017 William and Nat won the Glynn Academic Year Funding for Science Students, which will support their summer salary for research. Congratulations!
2/1/2017 Grand opening of Lu Lab!