Yi Lu
- Professor
- Richard J. V. Johnson - Welch Regents Chair in Chemistry
- Chemistry
- Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Graduate Programs
- Allen J. Bard Center for Electrochemistry
Accepting graduate students 25-26 academic year
Contact Information
Biography
Dr. Yi Lu received his B.S. degree from Peking University in 1986, and Ph.D. degree from University of California at Los Angeles in 1992. After two years of postdoctoral research in Professor Harry B. Gray group at the Caltech, Dr. Lu started his own independent career at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 1994 as a tenure-tracked assistant professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2000, full professor in 2004 and Jay and Ann Schenck Endowed Professor in 2010. In August of 2021, Dr. Lu moves to University of Texas at Austin, becoming Robert J.V. Johnson-Welch Regents Chair in Chemistry.
Research
Dr. Lu’s research interests lie at the interface between chemistry and biology. Specific areas of current interests include a) Computational design and directed evolution of artificial metalloenzymes as environmentally benign biocatalysts for renewable energy generation and pharmaceutical drug syntheses; b) Engineer biocatalysts to address challenges in synthetic organic chemistry and applications of novel biocatalysts in synthetic biology for biomass conversion and valuable products generation; c) Design and selection of sensors and imaging agents for metal ions, metabolites and glycoRNAs to advance metallomics, metabolomics and glycomics for medical diagnosis, imaging and therapy in neurodegenerative and infectious diseases and cancers; d) Using DNA for encoded synthesis and directed assembly of nanomaterials, as well as the applications of these nanomaterials as theranostic agents for early detection of diseases such as cancers and targeted drug delivery; and e) Developing novel gene-editing methods to improve sequence fidelity and gene target accessibility.
Research Areas
- AI for Health or Computational Science
- Energy
- Materials Science
- Artificial Intelligence and/or Robotics
Fields of Interest
- Analytical Chemistry
- Structural Biology and Biophysics
- Chemical Biology
- Inorganic Chemistry
- Organic Chemistry
- Physical Chemistry
Centers and Institutes
- Center for Electrochemistry
- Texas Quantum Institute
- Texas Materials Institute
Education
- Ph.D. in Chemistry, UCLA
Publications
Yuting Wu, Wentao Kong, Jacqueline Van Stappen, Linggen Kong, Zhimei Huang, Zhenglin Yang, Yu-An Kuo, Yuan-I Chen, Yujie He, Hsin-Chih Yeh, Ting Lu, and Yi Lu, “Genetically Encoded Fluorogenic DNA Aptamers for Imaging Metabolite in Living Cells,” J. Am. Chem. Soc. (in press; https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.4c09855).
Mandira Banik, Aaron Ledray, Yuting Wu, and Yi Lu, “Delivering DNA Aptamers Across the Blood-Brain Barrier Reveals Heterogeneous Decreased ATP in Different Brain Regions of Alzheimer’s Disease Mice Models, ACS Central Sci. 10, 1585–1593 (https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.4c00563) (2024).
Yuan Ma, Weijie Guo, Quanbing Mou, Xiangli Shao, Mingkuan Lyu, Valeria Garcia, Linggen Kong, Whitney Lewis, Carson Ward, Zhenglin Yang, Xingxin Pan, S. Stephen Yi, Yi Lu, “Spatial imaging of glycoRNA in single cells with ARPLA",” Nature Biotech 42, 608–616 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-023-01801-z) (2024).
Jing-Xiang Wang, Avery C. Vilbert, Chang Cui, Evan N. Mirts, Lucas H. Williams, Wantae Kim, Y. Jessie Zhang and Yi Lu, “Increasing Reduction Potentials of Type 1 Copper Center and Catalytic Efficiency of Small Laccase from Streptomyces coelicolor through Secondary Coordination Sphere Mutations,” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. e202314019 (https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202314019) (2023).
- Yiwei Liu, Kevin A. Harnden, Casey Van Stappen, Sergei A. Dikanov, and Yi Lu, "A designed Histidine-brace enzyme for oxidative depolymerization of polysaccharides as a model of lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase," Proc Natl Acad Sci. USA, 120 (43) e2308286120 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2308286120) (2023).
Casey Van Stappen, Huiguang Dai, Anex Jose, Shiliang Tian, Edward I. Solomon, and Yi Lu, “Primary and Secondary Coordination Sphere Effects on the Structure and Function of S-nitrosylating Azurin,” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 145, 37, 20610–20623 (https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.3c07399) (2023).
Yuting Wu, Seyed-Fakhreddin Torabi, Ryan J. Lake, Shanni Hong, Zhengxin Yu, Peiwen Wu, Zhenglin Yang, Kevin Nelson, Weijie Guo, Gregory T. Pawel, Jacqueline Van Stappen, Xiangli Shao, Liviu M. Mirica, and Yi Lu. “Simultaneous Fe2+/Fe3+ imaging shows Fe3+ over Fe2+ enrichment in Alzheimer’s disease mouse brain,” Science Adv. 9, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ade7622 (2023).
Yunling Deng, Sudharsan Dwaraknath, Wenhao O. Ouyang, Cory J. Matsumoto, Stephanie Ouchida, and Yi Lu, “Engineering an Oxygen-Binding Protein for Photocatalytic CO2 Reductions in Water,” Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. e202215719 (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/anie.202215719) (2023).
Casey Van Stappen, Yunling Deng, Yiwei Liu, Hirbod Heidari, Jing-Xiang Wang, Yu Zhou, Aaron P. Ledray, Yi Lu, "Designing Artificial Metalloenzymes by Tuning of the Environment beyond the Primary Coordination Sphere,” Chem. Rev. 122, 14, 11974–12045 (2022).
Ana S. Peinetti, Ryan J. Lake, Wen Cong, Laura Cooper, Yuting Wu, Yuan Ma, Gregory T. Pawel, María Eugenia Toimil-Molares, Christina Trautmann, Lijun Rong, Benito Mariñas, Omar Azzaroni, and Yi Lu, “Direct detection of human adenovirus and SARS-CoV-2 with ability to inform infectivity using a DNA aptamer-nanopore sensor,” Science Adv. 7, eabh2848; DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abh2848 (2021).
Mingkuan Lyu, Linggen Kong, Zhenglin Yang, Yuting Wu, Claire E. McGhee, and Yi Lu, “PNA-Assisted DNAzymes to Cleave Double-Stranded DNA for Genetic Engineering with High Sequence Fidelity,” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 143, 9724–9728 (2021).
Matthew W. Waugh, Sudharsan Dwaraknath and Yi Lu, “Advances in Metalloprotein Design and Engineering: Strategies Employed and Insights Gained,” In Section 8 (Biocoordination Chemistry) Lawrence Que, Jr. and Yi Lu, eds., Comprehensive Coordination Chemistry III, Edwin C. Constable, Gerard Parkin, Lawrence Que Jr., eds., pp 900-928 (2021).
Ruo-Can Qian, Ze-Rui Zhou, Weijie Guo, Yuting Wu, Zhenglin Yang, and Yi Lu, “Cell Surface Engineering using DNAzymes: Metal Ion-mediated Control of Cell-Cell Interactions,” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 143, 5737–5744 (2021).
Christopher J. Reed, Quan N. Lam, Evan N. Mirts and Yi Lu, “Molecular understanding of heteronuclear active sites in heme–copper oxidases, nitric oxide reductases, and sulfite reductases through biomimetic modelling,” Chem. Soc. Rev. 50, 2486-2539 (2021).
Yuting Wu, Zhenglin Yang and Yi Lu, Photocaged functional nucleic acids for spatiotemporal imaging in biology, Curr. Opin. Chem. Biol. 57, 95-104 (2020).
Ying Xiong, Jingjing Zhang, Zhenglin Yang, Quanbing Mou, Yuan Ma, Yonghua Xiong, and Yi Lu, “Functional DNA Regulated CRISPR-Cas12a Sensors for Point-of-Care Diagnostics of Non-Nucleic Acid Targets,” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 142, 207-213 (2020).
JingJing Zhang, Tian Lan, and Yi Lu, “Translating in vitro Diagnostics from Centralized Laboratories to Point-of-Cares using Commercially-Available Handheld Meters,” Trac-Trends Anal. Chem. 124, 115782 (2020).
Mengyi Xiong, Zhenglin Yang, Ryan J. Lake, Junjie Li, Shanni Hong, Huanhuan Fan, Xiao-Bing Zhang and Yi Lu, “DNAzyme-Mediated Genetically Encoded Sensors for Ratiometric Imaging of Metal Ions in Living Cells, Angew. Chemie Int. Ed. 132, 1907-1912 (2020).
Ryan J. Lake, Zhenglin Yang, JingJing Zhang, Yi Lu, “DNAzymes as Activity-Based Sensors for Metal Ions: Recent Applications, Demonstrated Advantages, Current Challenges, and Future Directions,” Acc. Chem. Res. 52, 3275-3286 (2019).
Lele Li, Hang Xing, Jingjing Zhang, and Yi Lu, “Functional DNA Molecules Enable Selective and Stimuli-Responsive Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications,” Acc. Chem. Res. (special issue “Nanomedicine and Beyond”), 52, 2415-2426 (2019).
Evan N. Mirts, Ambika Bhagi-Damodaran, and Yi Lu, “Understanding and Modulating Metalloenzymes with Unnatural Amino Acids, Non-Native Metal Ions, and Non-Native Metallocofactors,” Acc. Chem. Res. (Special Issue on “Artificial Metalloenzymes and Abiological Catalysis of Metalloenzymes”) 52, 935–944 (2019).
Zhenglin Yang, Kang Yong Loh, Yueh-Te Chu, Ruopei Feng, Nitya Sai Reddy Satyavolu, Mengyi Xiong, Stephanie M. Nakamata Huynh, Kevin Hwang, Lele Li, Hang Xing, Xiaobing Zhang, Yann R. Chemla, Martin Gruebele, and Yi Lu, “Optical Control of Metal Ion Probes in Cells and Zebrafish Using Highly Selective DNAzymes Conjugated to Upconversion Nanoparticles, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 140, 17656–17665 (2018).
- Evan N. Mirts, Igor D. Petrik, Parisa Hosseinzadeh, Mark J. Nilges, and Yi Lu, “A designed heme-[4Fe-4S] metalloenzyme catalyzes sulfite reduction like the native enzyme,” Science 361, 1098-1101 (2018).
Awards
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professors Award (2002)
- Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (2007)
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2015)
- Royal Society of Chemistry Applied Inorganic Chemistry Award (2015)
- Joseph Chatt Award (2020)
- Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors