2026

August 12, 2026 - Congratulations to Noah Eisbach, Miles Mokelke, and Kaiyan Jiang for being selected for Fall 2026 Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) Awards!

August 1, 2026 - Congratulations to Dr. Huiqian Hu, the lab’s first PhD graduate, who has started as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University. We are so proud of you, Huiqian!

June 23, 2026 - Dr. Lu joined the AI in Health panel at the Utah AI Convergence, hosted by the John and Marcia Price College of Engineering. Read More.

May 11, 2026 - Dr. Lu was one of six rising-star faculty selected to speak at Vitae 2026, University of Utah Health’s annual evening of stories behind the science, and the only speaker from the College of Pharmacy. Her talk, “Health in High Definition: Micro and Nano Technologies that Make Health Care Personal,” has passed 10,000 views on YouTube. Watch it here.

May 1, 2026 - Kaiyan Jiang was selected for the Pharmaceutics Research Internship and Summer Experience (PRISE) program in the Department of Molecular Pharmaceutics. Congratulations, Kaiyan!

May 1, 2026 - Noah Eisbach and Miles Mokelke join as undergraduate researchers. Welcome aboard, Noah and Miles!

April 30, 2026 - Congratulations to Tess Heiner and Isabella White, who both graduated from the University of Utah in Biomedical Engineering — Tess with her B.S. and Isabella with her B.S./M.S. We are so proud of you both!

April 7, 2026 - Our collaborators at St. Jude highlighted the μPharma study, including validation of pLCK as a marker of dasatinib sensitivity and the identification of pBCL2 for venetoclax. Read More.

March 20, 2026 - μPharma is in the news! Our platform was featured by Huntsman Cancer Institute in “AI-Powered ‘Lab-on-a-Chip’ Platform May Enable Same-Day Treatment Decisions for Pediatric Patients,” followed by coverage in @theU, Technology Networks, LabMedica, and Medical Xpress. Read More.

January 30, 2026 - A study led by Huiqian Hu is now on-line in Med (Cell Press). The work introduces μPharma, a microfluidic, AI-driven pharmacotyping platform for single-cell drug sensitivity prediction in leukemia. Read More.

January 1, 2026 - Kaiyan Jiang joins as undergraduate researcher. Welcome aboard, Kaiyan!

January 1, 2026 - Donovan Durand joins as graduate student research scholar. Welcome aboard, Donovan!

2025

November 20-23, 2025 - Dr. Lu served as Meeting Co-Chair for the 2025 AAEV Annual Conference held in Salt Lake City. Members of our lab contributed volunteer support, helping ensure the success of this international meeting.

June 9, 2025 - Our lab is hosting two high school students as part of the College of Pharmacy’s High School Research Internship Program!

April 9, 2025 - Dr. Lu was recognized with the Chinese Association for Biomaterials Young Investigator Award for outstanding contributions to biomedical research and innovation.

April 1, 2025 - Our lab was awarded funding to support studies on long COVID—Thank you to the RECOVER initiative!

January 6, 2025 - Md Hasan Al Faruque joins as Postdoctoral Fellow. Welcome onboard Hasan!

January 1, 2025 - Our lab was awarded funding from the Ben B. and Iris M. Margolis Foundation for Transformational Research Projects, supporting collaborative research with the Leung Lab!

2024

December 9, 2024 - Our lab welcomes undergraduate interns Kahlil Monje, Tess Heiner, and Tuong (Emily) Nguyen, expanding the lab’s research team and mentoring activities.

October 8, 2024 - Congratulations to Dr. Lu for receiving the 2024 NIH New Innovator Award (DP2)—we are very grateful for the support of The Office of the NIH Director! Read More.

September 11, 2024 - Our lab just received the College of Pharmacy Large Seed Grant—Thank you to The College of Pharmacy for your support.

August 19, 2024 - We are excited to have two rotation students join us this fall: Emma Welsh (BME) and Yusuf Rasheed (PHCEU).

August 6, 2024 - Congratulation to Isabella White for being selected for the Fall 2024 Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program Award! Thank you to The Officer of Undergraduate Research for your support!

April 1, 2024 - Teng Ma joins as Postdoctoral Fellow. Welcome onboard Teng!

February 10, 2024 - Congratulations Evan Marsh and team for winning first place in the 7th annual Global Health Case Competition! @UofUMedicine

2023

October 4, 2023 - When you have COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 spreads throughout the body. But why are the lungs hit hardest? Mucosal lymphoid tissues might be the key. Read our new Cell Reportspublication to learn about our findings and the analytical framework that could aid in future COVID studies and more.

August 22, 2023 - Congratulations Chuang Zhang for his Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation Fellowship! Read More.

August 21, 2023 - Ping Lu, Chuang Zhang, and Evan Marsh join as graduate research scholars. Welcome onboard Ping, Chuang and Evan!

July 21, 2023 - Congratulations Dr. Lu for completing the Utah Health Equity Leadership and Mentoring program!

May 19, 2023 - Our lab just received a pilot award from the @huntsmancancer Lung Cancer Disease Center! Their support is invaluable as we explore the potential of circulating vesicles to predict immunotherapy response. We are grateful to the Huntsman Cancer Foundation for their support.

May 17, 2023 - Our lab just received a NOA from @theNCI supporting the development of our single-EV technology! We are grateful for the opportunity to be part of a community of innovators in #IMAT. Stay tuned for where we will take our technology next! Read More.@UofUHealth@huntsmancancer@isbsci

May 9, 2023 - Isabella White, Adwoa Bonsu, and Angeles Fratti join as undergraduate research scholars. Welcome onboard Isabella, Adwoa, and Angeles!

Apr 15, 2023 - Alphonsus Ng has joined the Faculty of @UtahBME as tenure-track Assistant Professor! We are grateful for the support of @UtahBME, @UtahCoE, @UofU3i, and @UofUDMRC, and we look forward to the expansion of the Lu-Ng DigiPharma Lab!

Jan 7, 2023 - Chaoyang Mei joins as a graduate research scholar. Welcome onboard Chaoyang!

2022

Nov 10 - Our lab are co-authors in a Nature publication describing a first-of-its-kind trial by @PACTpharma, using CRISPR-based editing for personalized cancer immunotherapy. We are proud to have contributed to the founding technologies of @PACTpharma as well as methods to analyze engineered T-cells in the tumor. Read More.

Sep 19 - Our lab just received the NOA for a R01 grant with @BRIseattle, @isbsci, and @UofUHealth to bring new micro-nanotechnologies into the fight against T1D. We are grateful to @NIDDKgov, US taxpayers, and study section reviewers for their support of our research. Read More. We are hiring at all levels! Please visit our website for more details.

Aug 7 - Huiqian Hu joins as a graduate research scholar. Welcome onboard Huiqian!

Mar 31 - Dr. Ng became a member of the Global Health Steering Committee at the University of Utah.

Feb 15 - Last month, Dr. Lu became a member of the Experimental Therapeutics Program at the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI), an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.

2021

Nov 13 - We are hiring! We are seeking postdocs and graduate students who share our scientific curiosity, vision, and love for technology. Join us.

Oct 18 - Lu lab is officially opened!

Jul 19 - Our lab received funds from the Immunology, Inflammation, and Infectious Disease (3i) Initiative! We greatly appreciate the generous support from 3i!

Jun 29 - New paper published in Nature Communications. Read More.