LU LU, M.D.

Associate Professor

Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology

The University of Tennessee College of Medicine

Address

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center

855 Monroe Avenue, Suite 515

Memphis, TN 38163

Tel: (901) 448-7557; Fax: (901) 448-1716;

Lab: 509 Wittenborg Anatomy Building

Education

M.D. Institution: Nantong Medical College, Nantong, China

Postdoctoral: Columbia University, New York, NY; University of Tennessee, Memphis, TN

Research Interests

I use recombinant inbred (RI) mice and microarrays to study the several brain-related genetic problems. RI mice are an excellent resource for these studies and allow us to examine multiple types of data in a reference population. In addition to using the currently available RI strains, we have recently developed 45 additional BXD RI strains using two advanced intercross lines between C57BL/6 and DBA/2 mice as progenitors. In combination with the previously developed BXD strains this is the largest RI strain set in existence.

Many problems can be efficiently addressed using RI mice. One of these questions is the mechanism of genetic control over brain architecture. In order to study this issue we have collected extensive neuroanatomical and gene expression data in the brains of BXD strains. Because all animals are isogenic, we can collect data of the same and differing types from multiple animals and meaningfully relate each data set. This allows us to determine, for instance, whether steady state expression of a gene is related to an observed phenotype, for instance an aspect of brain architecture or a behavioral difference between strains.

Another fascinating problem that we are able to address with RI lines is the modulation of transcriptional control in response to environmental influences. Using the LXS RI strains we are examining the modulation of transcriptional control in response to alcohol, stress, and the combination of alcohol and stress treatments. By examining modulatory changes in response to these conditions, we hope to gain insight into the molecular substrates underlying differences in ethanol and stress responses—a question thought to be very important in understanding human alcoholism.

Recent Publications

• Ciobanu DC, Lu L, Mozhui K, Wang X, Jagalur M, Morris JA, Taylor WL, Dietz K, Simon P, Williams RW. Detection, Validation, and Downstream Analysis of Allelic Variation in Gene Expression. Genetics. 2009 Nov 6; [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 19884314
• Geisert EE, Lu L, Freeman-Anderson NE, Templeton JP, Nassr M, Wang X, Gu W, Jiao Y, Williams RW. Gene expression in the mouse eye: an online resource for genetics using 103 strains of mice. Mol Vis. 2009 Aug 31;15:1730-63. PMID: 19727342
• Boon AC, deBeauchamp J, Hollmann A, Luke J, Kotb M, Rowe S, Finkelstein D, Neale G, Lu L, Williams RW, Webby RJ. Host genetic variation affects resistance to infection with a highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza A virus in mice. J Virol. 2009 Oct;83(20):10417-26. Epub 2009 Aug 12. PMID: 19706712
• Koutnikova H, Laakso M, Lu L, Combe R, Paananen J, Kuulasmaa T, Kuusisto J, Häring HU, Hansen T, Pedersen O, Smith U, Hanefeld M, Williams RW, Auwerx J. Identification of the UBP1 locus as a critical blood pressure determinant using a combination of mouse and human genetics. PLoS Genet. 2009 Aug;5(8):e1000591. Epub 2009 Aug 7. PMID: 19662162
• Gaglani SM, Lu L, Williams RW, Rosen GD. The genetic control of neocortex volume and covariation with neocortical gene expression in mice. BMC Neurosci. 2009 May 9;10:44. PMID: 19426526
• Rosen GD, Pung CJ, Owens CB, Caplow J, Kim H, Mozhui K, Lu L, Williams RW. Genetic modulation of striatal volume by loci on Chrs 6 and 17 in BXD recombinant inbred mice. Genes Brain Behav. 2009 Apr;8(3):296-308. Epub 2009 Jan 12. PMID: 19191878

view complete list of references (pubmed link)