By Dr Yu-Xuan Lu
Postdoctoral fellow, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing
Dr Yu-Xuan Lu is a biogerontologist within the Department of Biological Mechanisms of Ageing at Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne, Germany. He has a background in biology, chemistry and psychology and has been working for interventions of ageing for six years. His main research focus and expertise are within investigation of molecular mechanistic connection between ageing hallmarks and evaluation of existing licensed drugs as geroprotectors.
He started his scientific career as a Chemistry graduate and subsequently moved to Molecular Biology as a PhD at the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China. In 2014, he moved to Germany and joined Prof Dame Linda Partridge’s lab in Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing as postdoctoral researcher, where he started investigating the molecular interaction between nutrient sensing pathway and epigenetic during ageing. He further successfully received EMBO long-term fellowship and was honoured as an EMBO fellow, which allowed him to work independently and focus on evaluating the potentials of existing licensed drugs as geroprotectors. Collaborating with Dr Jennifer Regan at the University of Edinburgh, he broadens his research to sex dimorphic in response to geroprotectors in order to personalise pharmacological interventions by using fruit fly Drosophila as model.
He is enthusiastic about interdisciplinary collaboration to develop better interventions of ageing. Beyond his research in the lab, he is deeply engaging in community engagement and science policy, particularly in advancing professional development for junior researchers. He is the co-founder and the first Spokesperson of Max Planck PostdocNet, where he gained tremendous experience for future interdisciplinary innovations. Moreover, he is a member of Max Planck Presidential Commission on furthering internationalisation and diversity in academia. Away from work he enjoys photographing and traveling to experience various cultures and interact with diverse groups across the globe.