Rate My Professor Lulu Jiang

Lulu Jiang, M.D., Ph.D., is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience and the Center for Brain Immunology and Glia at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, a position she has held since June 2023. She earned her Ph.D. from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health in 2016, where her dissertation examined the role of locus coeruleus-norepinephrine in Parkinson’s disease progression under the advisement of Jau-Shyong Hong, Ph.D. Jiang also holds an M.D. and a Bachelor of Medicine in Preventive Medicine from Shandong University in China, obtained between 2006 and 2011. Before joining UVA, she was Research Assistant Professor at Boston University School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics from January 2022 to June 2023, following postdoctoral training in the same laboratory from 2017 to 2021. Earlier in her career, she served as Assistant Professor at Shandong University School of Public Health from 2016 to 2017.

Dr. Jiang’s research centers on the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s disease and tauopathies, with emphasis on epitranscriptomic regulation via RNA modifications like m6A, neuron-glia interactions, neuroimmunological mechanisms, prion-like tau propagation, and iPSC-derived 3D human brain organoid models for precision medicine and therapeutic development. Her seminal publications include “Interaction of tau with HNRNPA2B1 and N6-methyladenosine RNA mediates the progression of tauopathy” (Molecular Cell, 2021), “Chaperoning of specific tau structure by immunophilin FKBP12 regulates the neuronal resilience to extracellular stress” (Science Advances, 2023), “TIA1 regulates the generation and response to toxic tau oligomers” (Acta Neuropathologica, 2019), and “Single cell transcriptomic profiling of a neuron-astrocyte assembloid tauopathy model” (Nature Communications, 2022). Jiang has secured major funding, including a $3.6 million R01 grant from the National Institute on Aging in 2024 for investigating epitranscriptomic mechanisms in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis, and over $200,000 from the Cure Alzheimer’s Foundation in 2025, in collaboration with Yimin Zou, Ph.D., to study tau-mediated synapse loss. Her prior honors encompass Alzheimer’s Association travel awards, Tau2020 Fellowship, and multiple outstanding dissertation and scholarship awards from Shandong University and Chinese ministries.