Her fields of expertise include biochemistry and structural biology. During graduate school at Tsinghua University, she solved high resolution crystal structures of the membrane protein transporters AdiC, UraA, and FucP in the laboratory of Yigong Shi, Ph.D. As a postdoctoral fellow in the Brown/Goldstein Laboratory, she delved deeper into the systematic study of a membrane protein cholesterol transporter named Niemann-Pick C1 (NPC1). Dr. Lu found two sets of compounds named U18666A and triazole drugs that, via biochemical and chemical biological discoveries, were found to directly inhibit NPC1. Now, as a newly minted Research Assistant Professor of Molecular Genetics, she is conducting further investigation into the NPC1 protein.