Faculty Directory
Julius Lucks

Margery Claire Carlson Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Contact

2145 Sheridan Road
Tech E154
Evanston, IL 60208-3109

847-467-5007Email Julius Lucks

Website

Lucks Lab

Centers

Center for Synthetic Biology

Departments

Chemical and Biological Engineering

Affiliations

PhD Program in Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences

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Education

Miller Fellow Postdoctoral Associate, University of California, Berkeley, CA

Ph.D., Chemical Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

M.S., Chemical Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

M.Phil., Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

B.S., Chemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC


Research Interests

The mission of the Lucks Group is to develop next-generation biological technologies that achieve global impact by helping those that need them the most. To do so, we re-use, re-purpose and re-engineer natural biological systems using cutting-edge approaches from synthetic biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and computer science. Our work combines experiment, theory and computation to tackle two key questions that span discovery to design: (1) How do cells sense and process information to respond to changing environments; and (2) How can we engineer molecular sensing and information processing to develop low-cost, accessible diagnostic and therapeutic technologies to benefit society. While we work on a broad range of problems, our current research is focused on two key areas:


Developing new AI-directed approaches to understand and design molecular folding and function. Recent advances in deep learning have created new approaches to predicting and designing protein folding and function. However, major gaps remain in cracking the RNA folding problem. RNA’s play central roles in almost all processes of life – from controlling gene expression to performing catalysis – yet we still cannot reliably predict and design the complex interplay between RNA sequence, dynamic folding and these functions. To tackle this challenge the Lucks Group is pioneering two new approaches: (1) megascale experimental pipelines that leverage next-generation sequencing to measure the folding thermodynamics and functions of RNAs; and (2) the development of new AI models that train on this data to predict and design RNA folding and function. In addition to developing these approaches, we are applying them to design new classes of RNA-based diagnostics and therapeutics.   


Engineering biosensing systems for diagnostics, therapeutics and smart materials. Many next-generation biotechnologies will require ‘smart’ molecular systems that can sense and respond to changing signals. Inspired by the abilities of natural cells, the Lucks Lab is engineering a platform technology that can be integrated across different biotechnologies based on biosensors - DNA, RNA and protein mechanisms that bind to chemical signatures and activate genetic processes. In the context of diagnostics, the Lucks Lab has pioneered new approaches to configure biosensors to work in ‘cell free’ reactions that can be assembled, freeze dried, and used at the point-of-need in a simple ‘just add water’ format. The Lucks Lab is working on developing sensors for water and food quality, and human health, and in collaboration with anthropologists, is currently field testing these systems in Chicago for household water quality monitoring. We are also integrating these biosensing systems to design new classes of smart therapeutics and are integrating them into biomaterials to detect compounds in agricultural applications.

 


Selected Publications

  1. Y. Li, T. J. Lucci, M. Villarruel Dujovne, K. J. Jung, D. A. Capdevila, J. B. Lucks (2025). "A cell-free biosensor signal amplification circuit with polymerase strand recycling." Nature Chemical Biology, doi: 10.1038/s41589-024-01816-w.
  2. A. S. Karim, D. M. Brown, C. M. Archuleta, S. Grannan, L. Aristilde, Y. Goyal, J. N. Leonard, N. Mangan, A. Prindle, G. J. Rocklin, K. J. Tyo, L. Zoloth, M. C. Jewett, S. Calkins, N. Kamat. D. Tullman-Ercek, J. B. Lucks (2024). “Deconstructing synthetic biology across scales: a conceptual approach for training synthetic biologists.” Nature Communications, doi:10.1038/s41467-024-49626-x.
  3. W. Thavarajah, P. Our, D. Awuor, K. Kiprotich, R. Aggarwal, J. B. Lucks, S. L. Young (2023). The accuracy and usability of point-of-use fluoride biosensors: a field study in Nakuru County, Kenya. npj Clean Water, 6, 5, doi:10.1038/s41545-023-00221-5.
  4. K. J. Jung, K. K. Alam, Chloé M. Archuleta, J. B. Lucks (2022). “Programming cell-free biosensors with DNA strand displacement circuits” .
  5. Nature Chemical Biology, doi:10.1038/s41589-021-00962-9. 
  6. A. M. Yu, P. M. Gasper, L. Cheng, L. B. Lai, S. Kaur, V. Gopalan, A. A. Chen, J. B. Lucks (2021). "Computationally reconstructing cotranscriptional RNA folding from experimental data reveals rearrangement of non-native folding intermediates." Molecular Cell, doi: 10.1016/j.molcel.2020.12.017.
  7. J. K. Jung, K. K. Alam, M. S. Verosloff, D. A. Capdevila, M. Desmau, P. R. Clauer, J. W. Lee, P. Q. Nguyen, P. A. Pasten, S. J. Matiasek, J.-F. Gaillard, D. P. Giedroc, J. J. Collins, J. B. Lucks (2020). "Cell-free biosensors for rapid detection of water contaminants." Nature Biotechnology, doi: 10.1038/s41587-020-0571-7.
  8. W. Thavarajah, A. D. Silverman, M. S. Verosloff, N. Kelley-Loughnane, M. C. Jewett, J. B. Lucks (2019). "Point-of-use detection of environmental fluoride via a cell-free riboswitch-based biosensor." ACS Synthetic Biology, doi: 10.1021/acssynbio.9b00347.
  9. E. J. Strobel, L. Chang, K. Berman, P. D. Carlson, J. B. Lucks (2019). “A ligand-gated strand displacement mechanism for ZTP riboswitch transcriptional control.” Nature Chemical Biology. doi:10.1038/s41589-019-0382-7.
  10. E. J. Strobel, A. M Yu, J. B. Lucks (2018). "High-throughput determination of RNA structures." Nature Reviews Genetics, doi: 10.1038/s41576-018-0034-x.
  11. K. E. Watters, E. J. Strobel, A. M Yu, J. T. Lis, J. B. Lucks (2016). “Cotranscriptional Folding of a Riboswitch at Nucleotide Resolution”, Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, doi: 10.1038/nsmb.3316..