Lenette Lu, M.D., Ph.D. - Faculty Profile

Biography

Lenette Lu, M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and a member of its Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine. She holds a secondary appointment in the he Department of Immunology.

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 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. She completed an internal medicine residency 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. She completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Harvard School of Public Health and the Ragon Institute of Mass General, MIT, and Harvard.

Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in infectious diseases, Dr. Lu 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.

Education

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

Research Interest

Antibody Effector Functions
Antibody Glycosylation
Host Microbial Interactions
Humoral Immunity
Tuberculosis

Publications

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

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

Honors & Awards

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)

Professional Associations/Affiliations

American Association of Immunology
Infectious Diseases Society of America