Graduate Student Profile - Luping Xu

Luping XuLuping Xu successfully defended her PhD dissertation on April 9, 2026. Luping is originally from Ningbo, China. Prior to starting her PhD, she obtained her Bachelor's of Science and Master's of Science degrees from Purdue University.

Luping's dissertation was titled, "Engineering Saccharomyces boulardii for Enhanced Protein Surface Display and Biologics Delivery." As a part of her research, Luping developed a yeast platform for the targeted delivery of a biological drug to treat chronic inflammatory diseases.

Luping's advisor was Eun Joong Oh. Other members of her graduate committee included Arun Bhunia, Lavanya Reddivari and Tzu-Wen Cross.

Luping was chose to continue her graduate degree at Purdue Food Science for a few of reasons, including the department's strong reputation and her positive experience in Dr. Bhunia's lab as a master's student. Luping was also excited to work with Dr. Oh, stating, "I believe in Dr. Oh! His research on using a synthetic biology approach to solve a wide range of problems is the future of food science and pharma. CRISPR is a cool technology to learn because it has numerous applications."

During her time at Purdue, Luping enhanced her classroom and lab learning by working as a functional genomics intern with AbbVie in North Chicago, IL.

Luping is no stranger to success, earning several awards and honors including:

  • 2026 College of Agriculture Research Spotlight
  • 2025 National Honey Board Product Development Competition (Fourth place)
  • 2025 Indiana Soybean Alliance Student Product Development Competition (Fourth place)
  • 2023-2024 Agtech Commercialization Graduate Fellowship

After graduation, Luping plans to work in industry or as a post-doctoral researcher. Congratulations, Luping!