Research Highlights
2024 August | The Lu group, along with the groups of Thomas Cundari, Andy Ellington, Kami Hull and Mike Rose, have received a Catalyst for Discovery program grant from the Welch Foundation.
2024 March | The Lu group has become an associate member of The Acquired Resistance to Therapy Network (ARTNet). We are working with Dr. Boyi Gan and others at the MD Anderson Cancer Center on developing imaging probes to gain mechanistic insights into ferroptosis and cuprotosis and using the insights to design better ferroptosis- and cuprotosis-inducing anti-cancer drugs.
2024 March | The Lu group has received a grant from CPRIT to decipher iron redox cycles in ferroptosis-based cancer therapy.
2023 April | Newfound Link Between Alzheimer’s and Iron Could Lead to New Medical Interventions | Yuting, Seyed and Ryan’s paper has been published in Science Advances. It reports a new imaging probe that has, for the first time, shown that in the same regions of the brain where the amyloid beta plaques associated with Alzheimer’s occur, there is also an increase in iron redox. The imaging probe could yield even more details about the causes of Alzheimer’s and help in the search for new drugs to treat it. Their findings have been covered by CNS , Science Daily, and several other news outlets.
2023 April | Lu group’s research on using PANDA to advance new therapeutics and gene editing tools has been featured in ACS Central Science and Chemical and Engineering News.
2022 December | Dr. Lu has won the prestigious Allen Distinguished Investigators award | This award is granted to biologists whose research has world-changing potential. See the news on the Allen Instittute and the CNS.
2021 December | Dr. Lu has been selected as a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors | Founded in 2010, the National Academy of Inventors aims to recognize inventors with patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, with an overall emphasis on innovation that clearly benefits society. See the news on the CNS website.
2021 November | New DNAzyme reveals different Li+ accumulation pattern in patient neurons | Lithium has been a drug for treating bipolar disorder (BD), a mental health condition marked by extreme mood swings since 1949. However, scientists still don’t have a clear understanding of how the drug works, because of lack of a sensor selective for Li+. Recently, our paper published in ACS Central Science, shine new light on bipolar disorder by developing a new DNAzyme-based sensor specifically for Li+ in live cells, discovering that neurons from BD patients accumulate higher levels of lithium than healthy controls. The paper has gathered attention from many news outlets, including Eureka Alert, Science Daily , Mirage News, and others. Claire's work has also been covered by C&ENews . See the commentary on the article in ACS.
2021 September | DNA sensor quickly determines whether viruses are infectious | Most tests for viruses, including SAR2-Cov-2, are based on detecting viral RNA and antigen and have been shown to be poor in informing whether a virus is infectious or not. They may result in delayed treatment or quarantine, or premature release of those who may still be contagious. Ana’s paper, published in Science Advances , address this key issue by demonstrating direct detection of human adenovirus or SARS-CoV-2 with ability to inform infectivity using DNA aptamer-nanopore sensors. See news release from UIUC News Bureau. The paper has gathered attention from many news outlets, including NSF, Chemical and Engineering News and others. Her work has been also covered in NSF's Discovery Files. You can also listen to Dr. Lu explaining Ana's work on WPGU radio .
2021 June | Genetic engineering with DNAzymes | Meet "PANDA", another gene scissor made with DNAzymes, first reported in Mingkuan's paper. With "PANDA", DNAzymes can now cut double-stranded DNA, making them powerful alternatives for protein-based genetic engineering systems. See the news release from UIUC News Bureau.
2019 December | Shanni’s paper in Chem. Sci. has been included as part of themed collection: 2019 Chemical Science HOT Article Collection
2018 September | A milestone in the use of metalloprotein engineering as a tool to guide catalyst design | Evan’s paper has appeared in Science. Congratulations! A Perspective in the same issue of Science called Evan's paper "a milestone in the use of metalloprotein engineering as a tool to guide catalyst design". Another article in Chemistry World called it “major advancement in engineering synthetic enzymes”. Here is a news release from UIUC News Bureau titled "Designer enzyme conquers sulfite reduction, a bottleneck in environmental cleanup", along with a video to explain the work. This work has so far been picked up by 7 news outlets and 11 tweeters as of 9/23/2018, and has been recommended in F1000Prime as being of special significance in its field:
2018 June | Biocomputing for point‐of‐care diagnostics | JingJing' s recent paper in Angew Chemie has been selected as a VIP paper, and has been highlighted by C&EN.
2017 10 30 | Photoacoustic Imaging | JingJing's recent JACS paper on DNA Aptamer-based Activatable Probes for Photoacoustic Imaging in Living Mice has been honored as Editor’s Choice.
2017 10 10 | The Role of H-Bond Network | Igor's paper has been included as a paper in an ACS Select Virtual Issue: Engineered Biomolecular Catalysts. Congratulations, Igor!
2017 03 21 | OK Molly Chemistry | Dr. Lu has been invited to be one of 42 leading chemists to write a commentary (The 'OK Molly' Chemistry) for the special "Holy Grails in Chemistry" issue of Accounts of Chemical Research in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the ACS journal.
2016 11 24 | New study shows why heme-copper oxidases prefer copper over iron | The recent Nature Chemistry publication Why copper is preferred over iron for oxygen activation and reduction in heme-copper oxidases by Ambika Bhagi-Damodaran and others of the Lu group has been featured on Phys.Org to highlight its important insights into naturally-occurring heme-copper complexes.
2016 06 21 | Now We "NO" | A recent publication by Shiliang Tian and others has been featured in a Nature Chemistry editorial on elucidating the mechanism for reversible NO binding to T1 copper centers in proteins such as azurin.
2015 12 02 | Chemists Mutate Protein to Achieve Wider-Than-Ever Redox Range | Work by Parisa Hosseinzadeh and others in the Lu group has been highlighted by C&EN and given a commentary by PNAS for the successful engineering of the entire physiological redox range into a single protein scaffold, azurin.
2015 11 24 | Having Biomarkers at the Fingertips | A recent publication by JingJing Zhang, et al., has been highlighted in Angewandte Chemie for their work to expand the utility of the common glucose meter.
2015 09 21 | Designed Enzyme on Par with the Native | C&EN has highlighted recent work by the Lu group and collaborators to engineer a myoglobin mutant with oxidase activity nearly that of native CcO by increasing the rate of electron transfer from cytochrome b5. The article may be found here.
2015 07 28 | A Pocket Test For Melamine-Adulterated Milk | The Lu group and collaborators have recently developed a way to utilize personal glucose meters (PGM) to detect melamine contamination in milk powder; featured on C&EN News, the PGM relies on a DNA aptamer that is selective for melamine down to 67.5 ppb.
2015 05 11 | Sodium Selective DNAzyme sensor | Recent work by Seyed-Fakhreddin Torabi, et al., has been featured in a summary article at Phys.Org highlighting the development of sodium-selective DNAzymes that function in living cells and shed light on the general development of ion-selective sensors. The work has also been featured on the UIUC school of Molecular and Cellular Biology webpage.
2014 01 02 | Nucleic Acids - Chemistry and Applications | A recent virtual issue of the Journal of Organic Chemistry/Organic Letters/Journal of the American Chemical Society commemorating the 60th anniversary of the elucidation of the DNA double helix has highlighted work by Le-Le, et al. due to its "high scientific quality and broad appeal." The article describes a simple strategy to prepare uniform DNA-modified up-conversion nanoparticles as versatile bioprobes.
2013 03 11 | Reversible assembly leads to tiny encrypted messages | Recent work by N. Y. Wong, et al. shows the development of a method for reversible and dynamic nano-assembly used to encrypt Morse code messages on a DNA origami tile. This work has been highlighted by UIUC News, JACS Spotlights.
2012 08 17 | 'Genetic code' guides nanoparticle growth | Work by Zidong Wang, et al. demonstrating the use of defined DNA sequences to achieve specific nanoparticle morphologies has been highlighted in C&EN, Chemistry World, and, most recently, the 2012‑2013 Beckman Institute Annual Report.
2012 05 07 | Bespoke Enzymes Push The Envelope | Recent work by Kyle Miner, et al. and Xiaohong Liu, et al. studying the role of tyrosine in oxidase activity in the myoglobin-based oxidase mimic CuBMb has highlighted the functional importance of this structural feature and its histidine crosslink. This work has been highlighted by C&EN and Photon Sciences News.
2012 04 17 | More Coverage For Glucose Meters | Yu Xiang's recent publication, extending the DNA based glucose sensors to detect a wider range of relevant targets, has been featured in "C&EN Online!"
2012 01 24 | DNA: Janus Nanoparticles' Better Half | Hang's recent publication in ACS Nano has been featured by "In Nano!"
2012 01 18 | A Glucose Meter That Detects Viruses | Yu Xiang's recent publication, adapting glucose sensors to detect viral DNA, has been featured by C&EN and others!
2011 07 25 | A Personal Meter For Everything | Yu Xiang's recent publication, illustrating the development of a glucose meter-based system that can sense a variety of analytes, has been highlighted by C&EN, the University of Illinois News Bureau, and others! Congratulations!
2011 02 04 | Grown in a crystal | The Lu lab's recent publication of gold nanoparticle grown in a protein crystal has been highlighted in the news. Congratulations!
2010 11 05 | Yu has been Selected | The recent article by Yu Xiang, et al., has been selected by Prof. Steven J. Lippard to appear in issue #9 of JACS Select - The Interface of Inorganic Chemistry and Biology. Congratulations!
2010 10 18 | Image Challenge | Think you understand DNAzyme kinetics? Prove it! A figure from our recent article about lead detection has been featured in JACS Image Challenges.
2010 09 16 | Using DNA to detect toxins | The Lu lab's research in DNA- and nanoparticle-based sensors for toxins and drugs is featured in the Fall issue of the Beckmann Institute's Synergy publication. Watch the video.
2010 02 01 | Dipstick test for toxic lead | Priya's recent work on lead detection using nanoparticle-DNAzyme conjugates has been featured in the news. Congratulations!
2009 12 04 | Metalloprotein made to order | Natasha Yeung and coworkers' work on building a structural and functional model of nitric oxide reductase (NOR) by introducing an iron binding site into myoglobin has been highlighted in the news. Congratulations!
2009 11 04 | Electron-transfer proteins tweaked | Nick's recent work on modulating protein redox potential has been highlighted in the news. Congratulations!
2009 03 | DNA-directed nanoassembly | Zidong's new paper "Functional DNA Directed Assembly of Nanomaterials for Biosensing" in the Journal of Materials Chemistry will take the cover of Issue 13, 2009. Congratulations Zidong and Dr. Lu!
2008 06 09 | Three Protein Copper Sites Interconnected | Masha's 2008 PNAS paper gets recognition in C&EN News.
2008 | Most accessed article | "MRI Detection of Thrombin with Aptamer Functionalized Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles", published in Bioconjugate Chemistry, is being featured on the ACS Publications web site as a most-accessed article of the 1st quarter of 2008.
2008 | Most cited article | "Smart Nanomaterials Inspired by Biology: Dynamic Assembly of Error-Free Nanomaterials in Response to Multiple Chemical and Biological Stimuli", published in Accounts of Chemical Research, was featured on the ACS Publications website as one of the Most-Cited Articles published in 2007 and cited through the period ending December 31, 2007.
2008 02 04 | Students get a say | Dr. Lu's Paper on Chemical Education was published in one of the highest impact magazines of general science, Science, and highlighted by Chemical and Engineering News, published by ACS.
2008 | Top 10 nanomedicine article | Juewen's paper "Quantum Dot Encoding of Aptamer-Linked Nanostructures for One-Pot Simultaneous Detection of Multiple Analytes" which was published in Anal. Chem., was selected as one of the top 10 (#9) 2007 nanomedicine publications. The list was selected by Nanomedicine Research.
2008 01 14 | Cool solution for sensitive biomolecules | The study for temperature independent pH buffer was highlighted by University of Illinois News Bureau and the RSC supplement Chemical Biology.
2007 11 21 | The changing colour of gold | Juewen's work on the design of a DNAzyme-based Cu(II) sensor has been highlighted by the Royal Society of Chemistry
2007 11 12 | The key to unlocking the secret of highly specific DNAzyme catalysis | The Lu lab's recent publication showing that DNAzymes can use several different modes of activation has been highlighted in the news.
2007 | Research Excellence Highlighted by Annual Report of the University of Illinois | The development of a lateral device for detection of cocaine based on gold nanoparticles was highlighted by the annual report of the University of Illinois. "Urbana researchers have developed a simple 'dipstick' test for detecting cocaine and other drugs in saliva, urine and blood serum..."
2007 02 12 | Disposable Sensor Uses DNA To Detect Hazardous Uranium Ions | Several scientific media outlets have reported the uranyl sensor with high sensitivity (ppb level) and selectivity based on the DNAzyme technology which was developed in the Lu Lab recently.
2006 11 13 | 'Dipstick' test for drug detection devised | Juewen and Debapriya's work on a lateral device for detection of drugs, such as cocaine, based on aptamer technology was reported by several scientific media sources.
2006 03 13 | Advances in Advance | Juewen's paper in Adv. Mater. was selected to be one of the "Advances in Advance" in the journal. The articles listed here have been judged by the referees or the editor to be either very important or very urgent and are immediately copyedited, proofread, and published online when the manuscript arrives in the editorial office in its final form.
2006 02 09 | Aptamers in Nanoland | Juewen's work on nanoparticle- and aptamer-based colorimetric sensors for adenosine and cocaine was highlighted by Nature.
2003 05 15 | Red signals lead | Juewen’s work on designing a highly sensitive and selective colorimetric DNAzyme sensor for Pb2+ detection has been reported by several scientific media sources.
2001 03 26 | What's in a name? | Read Dr. Lu's outlook on what it means to be a bio-inorganic chemist in the 125th Anniversary Issue of C&EN.
2000 11 01 | Red signals lead | Jing’s work on designing a highly sensitive and selective fluorescent DNAzyme sensor for Pb2+ detection is reported by several scientific media sources.
General News
2024 May | Congratulations, Yiwei, for receiving the Summer 2024 Chemistry Department Research Fellowship!
2024 April | Whitney has won the prestigious P.E.O. Scholar Award. Congratulations, Whitney!
2023 August | Dr. Lu has become a member of the Institute for Neuroscience.
2023 April | Yuan and Weijie's Nature Biotechnology paper on glycoRNA imaging got featured in CNS News.
2023 April | Weijie received 2023 Summer Research Fellowship and 2023 Professional Development Award from the Department of Molecular Biosciences. Congratulations!
2023 April | Yuan has been selected as one of the 2023 Leading Edge Fellows. Congratulations!
2023 April | Karen Zhang has won the Thermo Fisher Award for Excellence in Biochemistry award. Congratulations!
2023 March | Weijie has received the ACS Division of Biological Chemistry Research Award. Congratulations!
2023 March | Yu has won the Chemistry Department Graduate Student Excellence Award. Congratulations!
2022 October | Dr. Lu has become a member of the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
2022 October | Karen Zhang has been selected as a recipient of the Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations!
2022 June | Dr. Lu has become a member of the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering.
2022 May | Karen Zhang has won the CNS Award for Excellence in Biochemistry. Congratulations!
2022 April | Congratulations, Fred Elmquist, for receiving the chemistry departments' summer undergraduate research fellowship.
2022 April | Congratulations, Whitney, for receiving a Summer 2022 Chemistry Department Research Fellowship.
2022 April | Valeria has won the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF). Congratulations!
2022 April | Dr. Lu has become a member of the Texas Materials Institute.
2022 April | Dr. Lu has become a member of the John Ring LaMontagne Center for Infectious Disease (CID), which bridges the gap between basic and translational research into microbial and viral pathogenesis.
2022 March | Dr. Lu has become a full member of the Quantitative Oncology research program in the Livestrong Cancer Institutes at the UT Dell Medical School. Congratulations!
2022 Jan | Isabelle has been awarded an NIH fellowship under the inaugural Project-to-Product Team Entrepreneurship and Active Mentoring (P2P-TEAM) under the mentorship of Dr. Lu, Dr. Jason McLellan and industrial collaborators. Congratulations, Isabelle!
2021 Apr | Yiming has received this year’s Walter G Klemperer Dissertation Award in Materials Chemistry. Congratulations, Yiming!
2021 Mar | Mandira Banik has just received the prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation. Congratulations, Mandy!
2021 Mar | Congratulations, Suds, Dr. Dwaraknath, for your successful PhD defense! Best wishes in your continued success in your postdoc at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab!
2020 Dec | Congratulations to Yiming, who won the 2020 SCS Science Image Challenge!
2020 Oct | Lu group is a member of a new five-year, $1.5 million Center for Pathogen Diagnostics (CPD) to create new detection systems.
2020 September | Lu group is a member of the team that has received $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a device that can detect cancer biomarkers with just a few drops of blood.
2020 Aug | Congratulations to the following group members who have been awarded the following departmental fellowships:
Hirbod Heidari
Robert F. Carr Fellowship in Chemistry
Yiwei Liu
Dr. Michael J. Sofia Fellowship
Mingkuan Lyu
Drickamer Research Fellowship
Jingxiang Wang
Carl S. Marvel Fellowship
Yu Zhou
Carl S. Marvel Fellowship
Mandira Banik
Glenn E. and Barbara R. Ullyot Fellowship
Hirbod Heidari
Robert F. Carr Fellowship in Chemistry
Yiwei Liu
Dr. Michael J. Sofia Fellowship
Mingkuan Lyu
Drickamer Research Fellowship
Jingxiang Wang
Carl S. Marvel Fellowship
Yu Zhou
Carl S. Marvel Fellowship
Mandira Banik
Glenn E. and Barbara R. Ullyot Fellowship
2020 June | Yiwei is a recipient of this year's Department of Chemistry Teaching Excellence Fellowship. Congratulations!
2020 June | Dr. Lu has won the Royal Society of Chemistry’s 2020 Joseph Chatt Award for elucidating design principles of artificial metalloproteins to gain novel and deeper insights into the structure and function of natural systems.
Department of Chemistry News
Department of Chemistry News
2020 June | Mandira Banik has has been awarded the prestigious NIH Chemistry-Biology Interface (CBI) Training Program fellowship. Congratulations!
2020 June | Shiliang Tian and Parisa Hosseinzadeh, two former Lu group members, have accepted assistant professor positions at Purdue University and Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact at the University of Oregon. They joined another former Lu group member, Ambika Bhagi-Damodaran, who is now an assistant professor at University of Minnesota. Congratulations!
2020 May | Stephanie has received the award for Outstanding Oral Presentation in Science, Mathematics & Technology for her presentation titled "Introducing Oxygen Activation in Myoglobin via Single Proximal Mutation" in the UIUC Undergraduate Research Symposium. Congratulations!
2020 May | iSEE has a feature article on Matt: One of CABBI’s ‘Molecular Mechanics’
2020 Apr | Lu group has just received a RAPID grant from NSF to develop novel COVID-19 diagnostic tests. Thanks, Ana, Ryan and others who have helped with the proposal and project.
Department of Chemistry News; MNTL News
Department of Chemistry News; MNTL News
2020 Apr | Congratulations, Kevin, Dr. Harnden, for your successful PhD defense!
2020 Jan | Chris Reed has received a prestigious NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship. Congratulations!
2019 September | Lu group has received a Discovery Fund to develop novel genetic tools using catalytic DNA molecules.
2019 June | Zhenglin Yang has been awarded the prestigious Charles F. Kade Fellowship in Biochemistry. Congratulations!
2019 June | Rachel Martini has been awarded the prestigious NIH Chemical Biology Interface Training Fellowship. Congratulations!
2019 05 15 | Congratulations, Annika Lee, on graduating – and on receiving the John C. Bailar Award!
2019 February | Yiming’s image has been selected to be featured in an image display at Willard Airport for the upcoming year. Congratulations, Yiming!
2018 11 29 | Dr. Lu is among the nine Illinois Researchers ranked among world's most influential. This is the fourth year in a row that Dr. Lu has received this honor.
2018 11 27 | Dr. Lu has been selected for the prestigious Thomson Reuters 2018 list of Highly Cited Researchers. Dr. Lu has received this recognition four years in a row. Highly Cited Researchers identifies the world’s most influential contemporary researchers across 21 scientific fields.
2018 09 24 | Dr. Lu was interviewed by local newspaper The News-Gazette to talk about Evan’s work that has been published on Science.
2018 August | Dr. Lu has just given a plenary lecture at the International Coordination Chemistry Conference, held in Sendai, Japan, and ~2,500 people around the world attended the conference. For those who have missed the presentation, here is the slide show of his presentation.
2018 April | Quan Lam has been awarded the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations!
2018 January | "Taking the High Road by Finding the Middle Ground" Dr. Lu was interviewed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
2017 11 17 | Dr. Lu is among the five Illinois Researchers ranked among world's most influential. This is the third year in a row that Dr. Lu has received this honor.
2017 09 06 | Dr. Lu has been selected for the prestigious Thomson Reuters 2017 list of Highly Cited Researchers. Dr. Lu has received this recognition three years in a row. Highly Cited Researchers identifies the world’s most influential contemporary researchers across 21 scientific fields.
2017 05 24 | Claire Merchen has just received the NIH Chemistry-Biology Interface (CBI) Training Program fellowship. Congratulations!
2017 April | Kang Yong Loh has won the 2017 Beckman Institute Undergraduate Fellowship. Congratulations!
2017 April | Nitya Sai Reddy has won the 2017-2018 Beckman Institute Graduate Fellowship. Congratulations!
2017 04 08 | Ambika Bhagi-Damodaran, who obtained her PhD from Lu group recently, has received the prestigious 2017 Division of Inorganic Chemistry (DIC) Young Investigator Award. She will receive the award and give an invited presentation in the Inorganic Young Investigator Awards Symposium at the Fall 2017 National ACS Meeting in Washington, DC from Aug 20-24. Congratulations!
2017 03 17 | Sudharsan Dwaraknath has been awarded the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations!
2016 11 18 | Dr. Lu has once again been named as one of Eight Illinois researchers ranked among world’s most influential as part of the Thompson/Reuters mostly highly cited list for 2016.
2016 11 12 | Congratulations to undergraduate researcher Kang Yong Loh for winning the best poster award at the ECI ACS Undergraduate Research Conference for his work with NIR metal sensing using DNAzymes!
2016 09 23 | Dr. Lu has been selected for the prestigious Thomson Reuters 2016 list of Highly Cited Researchers. He has received this recognition two years in a row. Highly Cited Researchers identifies the world’s most influential contemporary researchers across 21 scientific fields.
2016 09 16 | A Pb sensor, developed and patented in the Lu group and licensed to ANDalyze, Inc., is making a difference in St. Paul Public Schools in Minnesota: Lu group technology is making a difference in the lives of students' in public schools in the US
2016 09 01 | The Lu group has become a member of a new theme on Omics Nanotechnology for Cancer Precision Medicine in Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology.
2015 04 05 | Congratulations to recently-graduated lab member Ambika Bhagi-Damodaran for being awarded the Faculty for the Future Fellowship from the Schlumberger Foundation for the 2016-2017 academic year.
2015 10 18 | Dr. Lu has been selected for the prestigious Thomson Reuters 2015 list of Highly Cited Researchers. Highly Cited Researchers 2015 identifies the world’s most influential contemporary researchers across 21 scientific fields. Over three thousand researchers earned the distinction by writing the greatest numbers of reports officially designated by Essential Science Indicators (ESI) as Highly Cited Papers—ranking among the top 1% most cited for their subject field and year of publication, earning them the mark of exceptional impact. A summary of seven UIUC faculty on the list may be found here.
2015 08 21 | Dr. Lu has participated in a Mesoscale Chemistry Workshop, organized by the National Academies of Sciences. Here is a summary of the workshop in which Lu group research has been presented.
2015 June | Dr. Lu has been honored as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC).
2015 May | Li Huey Tan has won the inaugural Materials Chemistry Dissertation Award named after Professor Walter G. Klemperer. It is given annually to the best PhD thesis in materials chemistry. Congratulations!
2015 May | Shiliang Tian has won the Stan Piper Award, given annually to the best PhD thesis in inorganic chemistry. Congratulations!
2015 May | Yi Lu has been named the recipient of the 2015 Royal Society of Chemistry Applied Inorganic Chemistry Award for research on the catalytic activity of DNA in the presence of metal ions and the development of a new class of sensors for on-site and real-time detection of metal ions: Applied Inorganic Chemistry Award 2015 Winner: Prof. Yi Lu
2015 04 30 | Parisa Hosseinzadeh has been chosen as a winner of the Robert L. Switzer Award for Teaching for this academic year. Congratulations!
2014 09 03 | Arzeena Ali has been featured in a piece for the I-STEM Education Initiative as a Chemistry Merit Scholar: From Moon Rocks to Test Tubes: Arzeena Ali Exemplifies the STEM Pipeline in Action
2014 04 19 | Matt Ross has won the Distinction award from the Biochemistry department as a senior undergraduate student. Congratulations!
2014 03 05 | Dr. Priya Mazumdar, a former Lu group PhD, and the Lu group sensor technology are featured by the Chicago Tribune: How ANDalyze is bringing water testing to the mainstream
2014 January | Dr. Lu has recently been interviewed by American Scientist, the magazine of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, before his delivery of Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecture at Sigma Xi Headquarter in Research Triangle Park, NC. To see the interview: American Scientist: Building with DNA, YouTube
2012 04 24 | Congratulations to Lu group member Parisa Hosseinzadeh for winning the Robert L. Switzer Award for Teaching! This award is given to an outstanding graduate student Teaching Assistant in Biochemistry. Great job, Parisa!
2012 04 03 | Congratulations to Lu group members Brian Wong and Tian Lan of GlucoSentient for winning the Burrill Best Digital Healthcare Application prize in this year's Cozad competition.
2012 02 23 | Professor Yi Lu has been awarded the 2012 Innovation Discovery award in Champaign County's Innovation Celebration ceremony. This award is given for "disclosing to the University's Office of Technology Management a groundbreaking discovery with potential for significant societal impact." Congratulations for this achievement!
2011 08 31 | Brian Wong and Dr. Rashid Bashir were featured on WCIA demonstrating nanotechnology at science at the market.
2011 07 21 | Congratulations to the following students for receiving departmental fellowships:
Kevin Hwang - Lester E. & Kathleen A. Coleman Fellowship;
Igor Petrik - C. S. Marvel Fellowship;
Li Huey Tan - J.C. Bailar Fellowship;
Shiliang Tian - Lester E. & Kathleen A. Coleman Fellowship;
Hang Xiang - R. C. Fuson Fellowship.
Kevin Hwang - Lester E. & Kathleen A. Coleman Fellowship;
Igor Petrik - C. S. Marvel Fellowship;
Li Huey Tan - J.C. Bailar Fellowship;
Shiliang Tian - Lester E. & Kathleen A. Coleman Fellowship;
Hang Xiang - R. C. Fuson Fellowship.
2010 11 30 | Congratulations to Nicholas Marshall for being awarded the T. S. Piper Award in Inorganic Chemistry. This is a prestigious award honoring the memory and accomplishments of Prof. Theron Stanish Piper. Read more here.
2010 10 01 | The handheld lead detectors, utilizing DNAzyme technology developed by the Lu lab and commercialized by ANDalyze, have been featured by Water Quality Products.
2010 07 16 | Congratulations to Dr. Lu on being appointed the inaugural Jay and Ann Schenck Endowed Professor in Chemistry. More...
2010 06-08 | Congratulations to Kevin M. Clark, Nathan Sieracki, and Weichen Xu for successfully defending their PhD theses. We wish them good luck as they continue their careers!
2010 05 06 | Congratulations to Julia Willet for being awarded the William T. and Lynn Jackson Merit Award.
2009 10 | Dr. Lu's company, formerly DzymeTech, has been renamed ANDalyze.
2009 10 | The first product based on the Lu group's patented catalytic beacon technology, a sensor for heavy metal ions, was launched this week.
2009 08 | DzymeTech, a company started by Dr. Lu, has been highlighted by News-Gazette.
2009 07 | The Lu group research has been highlighted by the NSF, and it is included as a highlight of research accomplishments in the 2010 NSF annual budget request to the Congress.
2009 05 | Dr. Lu's research has been highlighted by the Beckman Institute. More...
2009 03 | Functional Nucleic Acids for Analytical Applications, a book co-authored by Dr. Lu, has been published.
2008 10 | Dr. Lu has become an affiliated faculty of the Bioengineering Department in the College of Engineering.
2008 10 | Dr. Lu has become a member of the Executive Advisory Committee at Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory (MNTL)
2008 | Dr. Lu has received Special Creativity Extension Award from the National Science Foundation. The Award gives freedom from the pressure to prepare a formal proposal, which will stimulate additional creative work of greater risk and impact.
2008 | Dr. Lu has received Distinguished Visiting Professor from the National University of Singapore.
2007 10 25 | Dr. Lu is among the 471 new elected AAAS fellows in this year. He was chosen for pioneering work in biological inorganic chemistry, particularly for design and selection of metalloenzymes and their applications in catalysis, sensing and nanomaterial assembly. Congratulations!
2008 | Dr. Lu has been announced as the first recipient of the SBIC Early Career Award. He will receive the award at a special ceremony in Vienna at ICBIC XIII this summer and will deliver the award lecture. Congratulations!
2006 09 10 | Yi Lu believes he's come up with a simple, more effective way to detect the presence of lead. Within a couple of years, the University of Illinois chemistry professor hopes his Champaign-based company, DzymeTech Inc., will have test kits on the market that homeowners and home inspectors can use to check for lead in paint and water. More...
2005 09 30 | Lu group is part of the DOD Army Research Office Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) Research Teams located in the Beckman Institute. More...
2003 04 25 | Dr. Lu was awarded Campus Award for Excellence in Guiding Undergraduate Research.
2003 02 27 | Dr. Lu was named a University of Illinois Scholar.
2002 09 18 | Dr. Lu was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Million Dollar Professor.
2002 05 17 | Dr. Lu was awarded Elsevier Biosensor & Bioelectronics Award.
2002 04 05 | The Lu group is part of NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center for Direct Assembly of Nanostructures. More...