Rate My Professor Jianqin Lu

Jianqin Lu, BPharm, PhD, is the John A. and Frances P. Ware Endowed Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Director of the Pharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics Track at the University of Arizona R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy. He earned his PhD in Pharmaceutics from the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy in 2014, followed by postdoctoral training in nanomedicine at the University of Chicago and in nanomedicine and tumor immunology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He joined the University of Arizona in 2019 as a tenure-track assistant professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2024. Dr. Lu is also an Assistant Professor at the BIO5 Institute, a member of the Graduate Faculty, and affiliated with the University of Arizona Comprehensive Cancer Center's Clinical and Translational Oncology Program and the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center.

Dr. Lu's research centers on the fundamental and translational aspects of nanotherapeutics for cancer intervention and other diseases, at the interface of synthetic chemistry, drug discovery and delivery, nanotechnology, and tumor immunology. His laboratory investigates how structural alterations in sterol-modified phospholipid bilayers impact the delivery of small-molecule drugs and genetic materials such as siRNA, mRNA, and CRISPR; pioneers self-assembling sphingomyelin-derived nanoplatforms to improve drug loading, pharmacokinetics, and tumor delivery over conventional lipid systems; and develops nanotechnology-enabled approaches to convert 'cold' tumors into 'hot' phenotypes, synergizing with immune checkpoint blockade to enhance cancer immunotherapy. Key publications include 'Immunogenic Camptothesome Nanovesicles Comprised by Sphingomyelin-derived Camptothecin Bilayers for Safe and Synergistic Cancer Immunochemotherapy' in Nature Nanotechnology (2021), 'Sphingomyelin-derived nanovesicles for the delivery of the IDO1 inhibitor epacadostat enhance metastatic and post-surgical melanoma immunotherapy' in Nature Communications (2023), 'Cholesterol-Modified Sphingomyelin Chimeric Lipid Bilayer for Improved Therapeutic Delivery' in Nature Communications (2024), and 'A sphingolipid-derived Paclitaxel nanovesicle enhances efficacy of combination therapies in triple negative breast cancer and pancreatic cancer' in Nature Cancer (2025). His work has garnered major funding, including NIH/NIGMS Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA, R35), NIH/NCI R01, and PhRMA Foundation Faculty Starter Grant in Drug Delivery. Awards include the 2024 University of Arizona Cancer Center Translational Science Award, 2024 Nano Research Young Innovators Award, 2022 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Pharmaceutics Research Award, and 2022 Biomaterials Science Emerging Investigator Lectureship. Dr. Lu serves as a chartered member of the NIH Drug and Biologic Therapeutic Delivery Study Section and on the editorial board of the Journal of Drug Targeting.