News

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

Recap of Hua and Linda’s Conversation piece on UMBC News by Sarah Hansen.

November 27 2017

Studying circadian rhythms in plants and their pathogens might lead to precision medicine for people

Hua Lu and Linda Wiratan published in The Conversation.