About Kurt Q. Lu, MD

Dr. Lu, MD, FAAD, is the Eugene and Gloria Bauer Professor of Dermatology. Dr. Lu is a dermatologist who completed his undergraduate degree in immunology and microbiology from the University of Rochester and earned his medical degree from University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York. He completed internship at Columbia University and a combined residency and post-doctoral fellowship in molecular and cellular dermatology at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals of Cleveland. After his training, Dr. Lu stayed on as a faculty member at Case Western Reserve University for more than a decade prior to joining Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 2018 as an associate professor Dr. Lu's research interests focus on understanding and controlling inflammation in the skin. Working in the area of translational biology, Dr. Lu’s work spans the gamut from cell biology, to model organisms, to clinical trials. He is the director of the in vivo skin testing unit and associate director of the Translational and Experimental Skin Testing & Immune Tracing (TEST IT) core at the Northwestern University Skin Biology and Diseases Resource-based Center (SBDRC). The goal of his work is to ultimately translate the findings into the development of therapeutics for mediating skin and wound repair. He has developed methods for repurposing drugs, such as the use of ultra-high doses of vitamin D3 in controlling innate immune activation in the skin. His work has led to national and international recognition for the potential use of vitamin D3 and other immune-modifying drugs following skin injury in clinical scenarios such as UV sunburns and skin wounds from toxic chemical exposure. Dr. Lu’s work in the area of chemical exposures has shifted the focus in the field of skin toxicology towards the underlying immune response as a strategy for the development of therapeutics.