Albert Lu
Dr Albert Lu is currently appointed as Tenure-track Serra Húnter Assistant Professor at the University of Barcelona where he is establishing an independent research group. Dr. Lu is an MD/PhD scientist with a career path that spans over 20 years of active involvement and high level of achievement in science. Over the course of his scientific training, he has acquired a multidisciplinary expertise that covers a breadth of knowledge in molecular cell biology, biochemistry, RNA biology and genomics with a special focus on Membrane Trafficking and Extracellular Vesicles (EVs), including Exosomes.
His scientific career has been greatly impacted by research training carried out at prestigious research institutions abroad, including Stanford University, Kyoto University and the Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology. During his PhD studies at the University of Barcelona (UB), Dr. Lu uncovered an endosomal trafficking route that regulates signaling and turnover of KRAS; shedding light on the mechanisms that regulate Ras oncogenes. His Postdoc was conducted in the group of Suzanne Pfeffer (Stanford University). In the first phase of his postdoctoral training, he characterized a Golgi-localized ubiquitylation pathway that regulates cell cycle progression in mammalian cells. During this time, he became increasingly drawn to elucidating the molecular mechanisms that regulate EVs. Driven by this, in the second phase of his postdoc, he spearheaded a project to explore EV biology at an unprecedented genome scale using artificially barcoded exosomal microRNAs coupled to CRISPR/Cas9 genetic screens. This work was published in eLife and selected for presentation at major international conferences.
Before returning to the University of Barcelona, he embarked on a third project to characterize, using CRISPR screens, homeostatic regulators of two EV- enriched lipids, cholesterol and bis(monoacylglycerol)phosphate, which play critical roles in the pathogenesis of Nieman-Pick type C disease (NPC). This study, published early in 2022 in the Journal of Cell Biology, has important implications for understanding intracellular metabolic regulation of cholesterol and the pathogenesis of NPC. More recently, Dr. Lu was awarded a grant from the Michael J Fox Foundation to study the role of LBPA as a novel EV-associated biomarker for Parkinson's disease. Finally, Dr. Lu has provided scientific consultance on EV research to Mantra Bio (USA), a company developing exosome-based therapeutic technologies.
His scientific career has been greatly impacted by research training carried out at prestigious research institutions abroad, including Stanford University, Kyoto University and the Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology. During his PhD studies at the University of Barcelona (UB), Dr. Lu uncovered an endosomal trafficking route that regulates signaling and turnover of KRAS; shedding light on the mechanisms that regulate Ras oncogenes. His Postdoc was conducted in the group of Suzanne Pfeffer (Stanford University). In the first phase of his postdoctoral training, he characterized a Golgi-localized ubiquitylation pathway that regulates cell cycle progression in mammalian cells. During this time, he became increasingly drawn to elucidating the molecular mechanisms that regulate EVs. Driven by this, in the second phase of his postdoc, he spearheaded a project to explore EV biology at an unprecedented genome scale using artificially barcoded exosomal microRNAs coupled to CRISPR/Cas9 genetic screens. This work was published in eLife and selected for presentation at major international conferences.
Before returning to the University of Barcelona, he embarked on a third project to characterize, using CRISPR screens, homeostatic regulators of two EV- enriched lipids, cholesterol and bis(monoacylglycerol)phosphate, which play critical roles in the pathogenesis of Nieman-Pick type C disease (NPC). This study, published early in 2022 in the Journal of Cell Biology, has important implications for understanding intracellular metabolic regulation of cholesterol and the pathogenesis of NPC. More recently, Dr. Lu was awarded a grant from the Michael J Fox Foundation to study the role of LBPA as a novel EV-associated biomarker for Parkinson's disease. Finally, Dr. Lu has provided scientific consultance on EV research to Mantra Bio (USA), a company developing exosome-based therapeutic technologies.
