On Wednesday, March 27, Hang Lu, Associate Professor and James R. Fair Faculty Fellow in the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, delivered the 2013 Dudley A. Saville Lectureship at Princeton University. Her lecture was titled “Microtechnologies for High-throughput High-content Developmental Biology and Neurogenetics.”

Lu's lab is interested in engineering micro systems to address questions in systems neuroscience, developmental biology, and cell biology that are difficult to answer with conventional techniques. Microtechnologies provide the appropriate length scale for investigating molecules, cells, and small organisms; moreover, one can also take advantage of unique phenomena associated with small-scale flow and field effects, as well as unprecedented parallelization and automation, to gather quantitative and large-scale data about complex biological systems.

Her lecture showed microfluidic systems coupled with artificial intelligence for automated high-resolution imaging and high-throughput genetic screens in C. elegans, as well as chips for imaging embryos and cells for developmental and functional studies.  She presented micro systems for optogenetic experiments to dissect the function of neural circuits and behavioral output. Lu’s research group’s methods enable such systems level studies 100-1,000 times faster than traditionally done and, in many occasions, yield unique quantitative data that cannot be obtained otherwise.

Princeton University’s Department of Chemical Engineering established the Dudley A. Saville Lectureship for exceptional early-career chemical engineers and scientists. Inspired by his family and colleagues, this series reflects Dudley Saville’s longtime association with Princeton, his uncompromising pursuit of excellence, and his commitment to helping young people begin their academic careers.