Xiaotang Lu, assistant professor of chemistry, is among 12 researchers selected as Beckman Young Investigators by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation.
The 2026 class of awardees was announced June 9, 2026, and selected from a pool of about 400 applicants from colleges and universities across the U.S. They will receive $7.2 million in total science funding for cutting-edge research, according to the Foundation's announcement that said the “awardees exemplify the Foundation's mission of supporting the most promising young faculty members in the early stages of their academic careers in the chemical and life sciences, particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments, and materials that will open new avenues of research in science.”
This year's award offers $600,000 in funding over four years to each of the researchers.
The Lu lab has been pursuing research at the interface of chemistry and neuroscience, focusing on developing essential biochemical tools, advanced microscopy techniques, and computational methods to understand brain connectivity.
Lu’s proposed research to be funded by this Beckman award is titled, “Multiplexed Connectomic Mapping: Brain Microcircuits Roadmaps for Health and Disease”.
In describing her research, Lu said the true computing power of the brain emerges from the massive connections each neuron makes with thousands of other neurons—in other words, connectome. But, how the brain connectome gives rise to its sophisticated functions and how it is altered by neuropsychiatric diseases remain largely unknown. Lu and her research team will seek answers to questions that can help us better understand the brain connectome and its relationship to health and diseases.
"The support from the Beckman Young Investigator Award is absolutely catalytic for our research, giving us the freedom to pursue high-risk, high-reward science. It will enable us to build a next-generation connectomics platform that bridges circuit mapping and molecular profiling, ultimately helping us uncover the mechanisms of devastating neurological disorders and identify new therapeutic targets." Lu said.
Dr. Anne Hultgren, executive director of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation located in Irvine, California, said the Foundation is thrilled to welcome an expanded cohort of innovative young researchers into the Beckman ‘family,’ and to support their high risk-high reward projects over the next four years.
“Our scientists’ work aims to address wide-ranging challenges, and we are excited to help kick off their creative and important projects, and to see them achieve progress and ultimately meet their objectives,” Hultgren said.
Lu received her Ph.D. in materials engineering under Prof. Brian A. Korgel from the University of Texas at Austin. She then moved to Boston to conduct her postdoctoral research in neuroscience with Prof. Jeff W. Lichtman at Harvard University. She received the NIH BRAIN Initiative K99 Award for her postdoctoral research.
Lu is also affiliated with Bioengineering, the Neuroscience Program, the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology.