Dr. Lu is a Professor at the Department of Population and Health Disparities, School of Population and Public Health, and has a joint appointment at Department of Nutrition and Metabolism at School of Health Profession. With a training in pharmacy and medicinal chemistry, she was the first to discover that the methylation at the 5-position of cytosine in nucleic acids can be inhibited by an antileukemic drug, 5-azacytidine. She found that fetal tissues have the ability to metabolize environmental chemicals to induce DNA adducts which may be involved in transplacental and chemical carcinogenesis.
Her major research interest since relocated to UTMB, however, is the prevention of breast cancer through dietary means. She found two components in soy, isoflavones and proteins, may be responsible for why Asian populations consuming soy as a staple food have 1/3 to ¼ lower risk for breast cancer comparing to Western, non-soy consuming populations. In a clinical trial, she found that soy isoflavones reduce breast density and that soy isoflavones maintain the homeostasis of blood pressure, serum calcium levels and the homeostasis of several minerals which together are effects that may also explain why soy exposure also reduced the mortality of several chronic diseases including cardiovascular risk.
Using a cross-over controlled feeding study, she found that soy protein consumption reduced ovarian hormones in premenopausal women. Ovarian hormones and breast density are two important risk factors for breast cancer. Her goal now is to implement the intervention of soy foods in US communities to improve population health. Her research involves an interdisciplinary team. Her team found and proposed that soy isoflavones may be a new class of compounds participated in calcium homeostasis. She and her team continue to research the molecular and endocrine mechanisms that soy isoflavones may be used to improve population health.
Affiliations
- Department of Population Health and Health Disparities
- Department of Nutrition and Metabolism
- Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
- Cancer Center
- Institute for Translational Sciences
- Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Women's Health
- Sealy Center for Environmental Health and Medicine