December 10, 2024 PhD student Jessica Allison successfully defended her dissertation. Congratulations Dr. Allison!
November 11, 2024 Undergraduate Asiya Ahmed was recognized as Researcher of the Week. Congratulations Asiya!
July 22-26, 2024 The Lu lab hosted the Research Training for Future Science Teachers and High School Students (RTTS) program. This is an NSF sponsored outreach program aimed to provide research experience to undergraduate students who intend to become K-12 science teachers after graduation and high school students from Baltimore City high schools. In this week-long program, we had a blast to work closely with the RTTS Cohort 2024, consisting of 5 undergraduate student teachers and 5 high school students to learn basic science and gain hands-on molecular and bioinformatics skills. Many thanks to Lori L. Hardesty, Associate Director at The Shriver Center, and Erin Frye, science teacher from Baltimore City College for helping recruit these wonderful students! Thanks also go to NSF for the financial support!
May 14-16, 2024 Hua was invited as a Plenary Speaker to present at The 7th International Science Conference: The Science And Emerging Issues in the 21st Century. Faculty of Science, Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Nigeria.
May 10, 2024 Undergraduate Asiya Ahmed received Marshall Award and graduate student Jessica Allison received best Graduate TA award at the CNMS Awards and Recognition Day. Congratulations!
December 2023 These are three great papers published in the lab in 2023. Great job everyone!
Matthew Fabian, Min Gao, Xiao-Ning Zhang, Jiangli Shi, Leah Vrydagh, Sung-Ha Kim, Priyank Patel, Anna R. Hu, and Hua Lu (2023) The flowering time regulatory gene FLK in controlling pathogen defense in Arabidopsis thaliana. Plant Physiology 191 (4): 2461-2474. doi: 10.1093/plphys/kiad021
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36662556/
Min Gao, Chong Zhang, William Angel, Julie Wolf, Linda Wiratan, Hua Lu (2023) Circadian regulation of the GLYCINE-RICH RNA-BINDING PROTEIN gene by the mater clock protein CIRCADIAN CLOCK-ASSOCIATED 1 is important for plant innate immunity. Journal of Experimental Botany 74 (3): 991-1003.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36367575/
Wang Y, Wang X, Fang J, Yin W, Yan X, Tu M, Liu H, Zhang Z, Li Z, Gao M, Lu H, Wang Y, Wang X (2023) VqWRKY56 interacts with VqbZIPC22 in grapevine to promote proanthocyanidin biosynthesis and increase resistance to powdery mildew. New Phytol 237 (5): 1856-1875.
https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.18688
August 10, 2023 The Lu lab received an NSF grant to study the Role of FLK in regulating defense and development in Arabidopsis. Dr. Steve Mount at UMD is co-PI of the grant. This is a three year grant with a total of $750,000 support. Congratulations!
July 2023 PhD students Jessica Allison and Leah Vrydagh received Arnold and Marianne Ostrand Endowed Award from CNMS to support their attendance of the 2023 IS-MPMI Congress (July 16-20, 2023) in Providence, RI. Congratulations! This will be a great opportunity to learn and get to know other scientists and research in the field! Many thanks to our generous donors and CNMS Dean’s office!
June 12-17, 2022 Dr. Lu served as the discussion leader for the Biotic Interactions session at the Gordon Research Conference – Plant Molecular Biology: Spatial and Temporal Dynamics in Plant Biology. Holderness, NH.
May 2022 PhD student Leah Vrydagh won Graduate Student Poster Award at The Joint MAS-ASPB and UMCP Plant Science Symposium. University of Maryland at College Park. May 26-27, 2022. Great job Leah!
June 2021 Graduate student Leah Vrydagh joined the Lu lab to do research on host-pathogen interaction! Welcome Leah!
Feb 2021 Matthew successfully defended his PhD thesis. Congratulation Dr. Fabian!
March 16-17, 2020 Hua was invited as a Plenary Speaker to present at International Conference on Frontiers in Sustainable Agriculture and Biological Sciences (FSABS-2020). Periyar University, Salem, TN India.
June 30, 2019 Dr. Xiaoning Zhang at St Bonaventure University (PI) and Dr. Lu (co-PI) were awarded an NSF grant to study “Alternative splicing in the regulation of plant innate immunity”. This project will provide excellent training opportunities for students. This is a four year grant with a total amount of $650,000. Congratulations!
October 1, 2019 Hua was elected as Chair of Mid-Atlantic American Society of Plant Biologists. She is looking forward to working plant scientists in the region to promote plant research and education.
September 4, 2019 Jess successfully passed her preliminary test. She is now officially a PhD candidate. Congratulations Jess!
August 14, 2019 PhD student Matthew Fabian won Graduate Student Poster Award at the 36th Annual Mid-Atlantic Plant Molecular Biology Society, Beltsville, MD. Congratulations Matt!
June 24-28, 2019 We successfully hosted in our laboratory the Research Training for future K-12 science Teachers and high school Students of underrepresented groups (RTTS) program. It was a pleasure to work with our future teachers (Ben, Malaysia, Shaojie, and Riki) from UMBC and high school students (Kimani, Allen, Cora, Youssef) from Baltimore City high schools. Ben, Malaysia, and Shaojie are UMBC Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars. We thank Michele Wolff and Lori Hardesty from the Shriver Center and Mrs. Erin Frye from the Baltimore City College for recruiting these wonderful students to this program! We thank NSF for supporting this program!
June 12, 2019 UMBC News release on our NC paper: UMBC’s Hua Lu works to decode plant defense system, with an eye on improving farming and medicine. by Sarah Hansen
June 11, 2019 Our paper on LUX is published in Nature Communications. Congratulations everyone!
LUX ARRHYTHMO mediates crosstalk between the circadian clock and defense in Arabidopsis
May 23, 2019 Linda is this year’s Valedictorian and she represented UMBC undergraduates to give a speech in May 2019 commencement ceremony. Linda will be a PhD student at Harvard University this September. We are so proud of you, Linda!
May 17, 2019 In response to the global celebration of plants, students in the Biol 456 class (Plant Molecular Biology) and the Lu laboratory hosted the celebration of Fascination of Plants Day this Friday from 11-1 pm in Commons Breezeway. The students showcased what they had learnt in the class through poster presentations and fun games related to plants. There were also free food, prizes, and plants to give away at the event.
May 10, 2019 Undergraduate Riki Egoshi received the Marsho Award and she was recognized at today’s CNMS Awards and Recognition Day ceremony. Riki also received 2019-2020 Undergraduate Research Award (URA) to support her research on clock-defense crosstalk. Congratulations Riki!
March, 2019 Graduate student Matt Fabian Received a research grant from UMBC Graduate Student Association. Congratulations Matt!
March 11, 2019 Hua received a NSF supplement grant that aims to provide Research Training for future K-12 science Teachers and high school Students of underrepresented groups (RTTS). The RTTS program will be run this summer for a week. We are so excited to have this opportunity to give back to the community!
November 17, 2018 Linda was interviewed as a Rhodes Scholar finalist in the Washington DC area. Congratulations Linda!
October 8, 2018 Graduate student Jess and Hua’s article on cloning is published in The Conversation.
Could villains clone themselves to take over the world?
October 2, 2018 Graduate student Matt Fabian was selected to participate in the 2018 – 2019 ASPB Conviron Scholars Program. Congratulations Matt!
August 15, 2018 PhD student Matt Fabian received the “Best Poster Presentation” award, graduate student category, at the annual Mid-Atlantic Plant Molecular Biology Society, held on August 14-15, 2018 in Beltsville, MD. Congratulations Matt!
April 23, 2018 Our rising star Linda is on the new! UMBC News and URCAD at UMBC
April 15, 2018 Welcome Dr. Yubing Yang! Dr. Yang is a postdoc researcher who will work on the circadian clock-defense project. She received her PhD from Sun Yat-sen University in China.
March 30th, 2018 Congratulations to Linda for winning the Goldwater Scholarship for 2018!
March 20, 2018 James Doffermyre joined the Lu laboratory to pursue a MS degree. Welcome James!
December 1, 2017 News release
Recap of Hua and Linda’s Conversation piece on UMBC News by Sarah Hansen.
November 27 2017 News release
Studying circadian rhythms in plants and their pathogens might lead to precision medicine for people
Hua Lu and Linda Wiratan published in The Conversation.