Ting Lu

Ting Lu is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the School of Biomedical and Translational Sciences, focusing on microbial synthetic biology and systems biology. Their research bridges biology, engineering, and physics to reprogram cellular functionalities through gene regulatory networks.

• Ph.D. in Biophysics, University of California at San Diego (2007)
• B.S. in Physics, Zhejiang University (2002)

Ting Lu's work explores microbial ecosystems, synthetic gene circuits, and their applications in biotechnology and medicine. By combining experimental approaches with mathematical modeling, they investigate bacterial communication networks, metabolic pathways, and spatial dynamics in microbial communities.

Selected research trends include microbial consortia engineering for bioremediation and bioproduction, complexity reduction in microbiomes, and predictive modeling of synthetic gene networks. Their publications span high-impact journals such as Nature Communications, Nature Chemical Biology, and eLife.

• Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2022)
• Future Insight Prize (2021)
• Donald Biggar Willett Faculty Scholar (UIUC) (2020)
• NIH Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (2019)
• NSF CAREER Award (2015)
• AHA National Scientist Development Grant (2012)

Ting Lu's lab has received grants from NIH, NSF, ONR, and industry partners. They offer undergraduate research opportunities in synthetic and systems biology, and teach advanced courses such as BIOE 430 - Intro Synthetic Biology and BIOE 432 - Systems Biology.