The Department of Genetics at Yale School of Medicine is proud to announce that Xiaona Lu, MD, PhD, has been honored with two prestigious awards at the 2026 American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Lu was awarded both the Career Development Award and the Excellence in Research Award, highlighting her exceptional contributions and promising future in the field of gene therapy.
The ASGCT Career Development Award is a highly competitive grant designed to support independent, transformative pilot studies in cell and gene therapy by ASGCT members. The Excellence in Research Award recognizes top-scoring abstracts submitted by early-career researchers. These awards recognize the outstanding scientific merit of Dr. Lu’s work.
Dr. Lu, a Research Scientist in Dr. Yong-Hui Jiang’s laboratory, conducts translational research focused on neurodevelopmental disorders. She generates and utilizes genetically engineered animal models and human iPSC-derived neurons and brain organoids to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders and develop targeted therapies to treat them. Currently, she is contributing to preclinical FDA pre-IND efforts for genome editing in Angelman syndrome, supported by funding from the NIH to the somatic cell genome editing project led by Drs. Jiang and Jiangbing Zhou.
We extend our warmest congratulations to Dr. Lu on these remarkable achievements and look forward to her continued success in advancing genetic medicines.