Background: 

Dr. Ting Lu is a professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Dr. Ting Lu is also a faculty affiliate in the Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, the Center for Digital Agriculture, the Department of Physics, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and the Carle-Illinois College of Medicine at UIUC.

Statement of Research Interest:

Dr. Ting Lu's research lies in microbial synthetic biology, a multidisciplinary area that leverages rationally designed gene circuits to program microbial cellular functions. The overarching objective of his research is to uncover the foundational core principles of gene circuit engineering and to apply these principles to engineer microbial strains and their communities for applications in different contexts. 

Selected Publications:

• J. Shin, S Liao, N. Kuanysheva, Y. Xin, T Lu*, and Y. Jin* (*Co-corresponding authors)
  Compositional and temporal division of labor modulates mixed sugar fermentation by an engineered yeast consortium
  Nature Communications, 15: 781 (2024).

•  P. Nguyen, X. Huang, D. Collins, J. Collins, and T. Lu
  Harnessing synthetic biology to enhance ocean health
  Trends in Biotechnology, 41: 860-874 (2023).

• T. Bao, Y. Qian, Y. Xin, J. Collins, and T. Lu
  Engineering microbial division of labor for plastic upcycling
  Nature Communications, 14: 5712 (2023).

• W. Kong, Y. Qian, P. Stewart, and T. Lu
  De novo engineering of a bacterial lifestyle program
  Nature Chemical Biology, 19: 488–497 (2022).

• L. Schaerer, R. Wu, L. Putman, J. Pearce, T. Lu, D. Shonnard, R. Ong, and S. Techtmann
  Killing two birds with one stone: biochemical upcycling of plastics into food
  Trends in Biotechnology, 41: 184-196 (2022).

• F. Liu, J. Mao, W. Kong, Y. Feng, Q. Hua, R. Bashir, and T. Lu
  Interaction variability shapes succession of synthetic microbial ecosystems
  Nature Communications, doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13986-6 (2020)

• V. Celik, W. Kong, A. Blanchard, F. Liu, and T. Lu
  Spatial interference scale as a determinant of microbial range expansion
  Science Advances 4: eaau0695 (2018).

• W. Kong, D. Meldgin, J. Collins, and T. Lu
  Designing microbial consortia with defined social interactions
  Nature Chemical Biology 14: 821–829 (2018).

•  D. Karig, K. Martini, T. Lu, N. DeLateur, N. Goldenfeld, and R. Weiss
  Stochastic Turing patterns in a synthetic bacterial population
  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 115: 6572-6577 (2018)

• C. Liao, A. Blanchard, and T. Lu
  An integrative circuit-host modeling framework for predicting synthetic gene network behaviors
  Nature Microbiology 2: 1658–1666 (2017).

• C. Liao, S. Seo, V. Celik, H. Liu, W. Kong, Y. Wang, H. Blaschek, Y. Jin, and T. Lu
  Integrated, systems metabolic picture of acetone-butanol-ethanol fermentation by clostridium acetobutylicum
  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 112: 8505–8510 (2015)

• W. Fu, A. Ergun*, T. Lu*, J. Hill, S. Haxhinasto, M. Fassett, R. Gazit, S. Adoro, S. Chan, D. Rossi, J. Collins, D. Mathis, and C. Benoist
  A multiply redundant genetic switch 'locks in' the transcriptional signature of Treg cells
  Nature Immunology 13: 972-980 (2012) (*Equal contribution)

• W. Ruder*, T. Lu*, and J. J. Collins
  Synthetic biology moving into the clinic
  Science 333: 1248-1252 (2011) (*Equal contribution)