Lenette Lu, M.D., Ph.D.

Lenette Lu, M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and the Department of Immunology at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and a member of its Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine.

My long-term goal is to translate observations from humans to models of disease in order to further inform and direct human studies, realizing the remarkable potential in the synergy between science and medicine.

Originally from China, Dr. Lu holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and Asian studies from Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, where she graduated with high honors. She earned her medical degree and her doctoral degree in molecular virology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. She completed a residency in internal medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and a clinical fellowship in infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. She completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard.

Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in infectious diseases and internal medicine, she joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2019.

Dr. Lu’s research focuses on how antibodies interface with the host-microbe in infectious diseases. Her studies focus on Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the bacterium that infects one out of four people worldwide and causes tuberculosis. Her goal is to increase understanding of the immune response to infection and, ultimately, to translate observations from humans to models of disease to further inform and direct human studies that could direct diagnostic, therapeutic, and vaccine development.

Dr. Lu is a member of the American Association of Immunologists and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. In 2021, she received the American Society for Clinical Investigation’s Young Physician Scientist Award.

Other Post Graduate Training

Case Western Reserve University (2009)

Graduate School

Case Western Reserve University (2009), Molecular Virology

Medical School

Case Western Reserve University (2010)

Residency

New York Presbyterian Hospital, Cornell Campus (2013), Internal Medicine

Fellowship

Massachusetts General Hospital (2015), Infectious Diseases

• Antibody Effector Functions
• Antibody Glycosylation
• Host Microbial Interactions
• Humoral Immunity
• Tuberculosis

Featured Publications

IFN-γ-independent immune markers of Mycobacterium tuberculosis exposure

Lu LL, Smith MT, Yu KKQ, Luedemann C, Suscovich TJ, Grace PS, Cain A, Yu WH, McKitrick TR, Lauffenburger D, Cummings RD, Mayanja-Kizza H, Hawn TR, Boom WH, Stein CM, Fortune SM, Seshadri C, Alter G, Nat. Med. 2019 06 25 6 977-987

Beyond binding: antibody effector functions in infectious diseases.

Lu LL, Suscovich TJ, Fortune SM, Alter G, Nat. Rev. Immunol. 2018 Jan 18 1 46-61

A Functional Role for Antibodies in Tuberculosis.

Lu LL, Chung AW, Rosebrock TR, Ghebremichael M, Yu WH, Grace PS, Schoen MK, Tafesse F, Martin C, Leung V, Mahan AE, Sips M, Kumar MP, Tedesco J, Robinson H, Tkachenko E, Draghi M, Freedberg KJ, Streeck H, Suscovich TJ, Lauffenburger DA, Restrepo BI, Day C, Fortune SM, Alter G, Cell 2016 Oct 167 2 433-443.e14

BNT162b2-induced neutralizing and non-neutralizing antibody functions against SARS-CoV-2 diminish with age.

Bates TA, Lu P, Kang YJ, Schoen D, Thornton M, McBride SK, Park C, Kim D, Messer WB, Curlin ME, Tafesse FG, Lu LL, Cell Rep 2022 Oct 41 4 111544

Engineering the supernatural: monoclonal antibodies for challenging infectious diseases.

Grace PS, Gunn BM, Lu LL, Curr Opin Biotechnol 2022 Oct 78 102818

Leveraging Antibody, B Cell and Fc Receptor Interactions to Understand Heterogeneous Immune Responses in Tuberculosis.

Carpenter SM, Lu LL, Front Immunol 2022 13 830482

Antibody Subclass and Glycosylation Shift Following Effective TB Treatment.

Grace PS, Dolatshahi S, Lu LL, Cain A, Palmieri F, Petrone L, Fortune SM, Ottenhoff THM, Lauffenburger DA, Goletti D, Joosten SA, Alter G, Front Immunol 2021 12 679973

Unique repertoire of anti-carbohydrate antibodies in individual human serum.

Luetscher RND, McKitrick TR, Gao C, Mehta AY, McQuillan AM, Kardish R, Boligan KF, Song X, Lu L, Heimburg-Molinaro J, von Gunten S, Alter G, Cummings RD, Sci Rep 2020 09 10 1 15436

Antibody Fc Glycosylation Discriminates Between Latent and Active Tuberculosis.

Lu LL, Das J, Grace PS, Fortune SM, Restrepo BI, Alter G, J. Infect. Dis. 2020 Feb

Publisher Correction: IFN-γ-independent immune markers of Mycobacterium tuberculosis exposure

Lu LL, Smith MT, Yu KKQ, Luedemann C, Suscovich TJ, Grace PS, Cain A, Yu WH, McKitrick TR, Lauffenburger D, Cummings RD, Mayanja-Kizza H, Hawn TR, Boom WH, Stein CM, Fortune SM, Seshadri C, Alter G, Nat. Med. 2019 Jun

 Featured Books

Babesiosis. In Diagnostic Pathology: Infectious DIseases

Lu, L., and Milner, D. (2015). Canada, Elsevier

Anaplasmosis and Ehrlichiosis. In Diagnostic Pathology: Infectious Diseases

Lu, L., and Milner, C. (2015). Canada, Elsevier

Primary Gram-negative Respiratory Pathogen Infections. In Diagnostic Pathology: Infectious Diseases

Pecora, N., and Lu, L. (2015). Canada, Elsevier

• Young Physician Scientist Award
  American Society for Clinical Investigation (2021)
• Disease Oriented Clinical Scholars Award
  UT Southwestern (2019)
• K08 Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award
  NIH (2017)
• Maxwell Finland Award for Excellence in Research
  Massachusetts Infectious Disease Society (2017)
• TB Gift Innovation Award
  The Broad Institute (2017)

• American Association of Immunology
• Infectious Diseases Society of America