Biographical Info

Dr. Young is a Professor and Chair in Rutgers Department of Environmental Sciences and Biotechnology Center for Agriculture and the Environment. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the U.S. Department of Defense Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program. She also serves on the EC-US Task Force on Environmental Biotechnology.

Research Areas

Examining the instrinsic ability of anaerobic communities from NY-NJ Harbor sediments todegrade alkanes and PAHs, and environmental factors which affect the activity Determining the novel microbial chemistry of the anaerobic pathways of naphthalene, methylnapthalene and phenanthrene by active consortia, and that of the alkanes by newly isolated pure cultures; Investigating methods to improve or enhance natural rates of biodegradation; Developing biochemical markers for assessing intrinsic biodegradation; Isolating novel anaerobes able to degrade additional petroleum constituents and other aromatic compounds; Characterizing the anaerobic toluene pathway in a denitrifying strain with a molecular genetic approach.

Scholarly Activities

• 2001 Research Excellence Award, Board of Trustees, Rutgers Univeristy
• 1999 Research Excellence Award, Cook College, NJ Agricultural Experiment Station, Rutgers University
• 1996 Invited presentation to the Presidents’ Circle of the National Academy of Sciences (Advisory group to NAS President Bruce Albert, comprised of 100 buisness leaders) – Colloquium on “Water Resources for the 21st Century”; presentation title, “Environmental Biotechnology”

Recent Publications

1. Young, LJ. Peek Inside: A food dye temporarily renders skin transparent. Sci Am. 2024;331 (5):14. doi: 10.1038/scientificamerican122024-5sxslDGjW2hhGjqPNSjN80. PubMed PMID:39561060
2. Seshadri, N, Faig, W, Young, LR, Hill, DA. Risk Factors for Hospitalization in Subspecialty Patients with Severe Persistent Asthma. Respir Med. 2024; :107867. doi: 10.1016/j.rmed.2024.107867. PubMed PMID:39551249
3. Deutchman, P, Kraft-Todd, G, Young, L, McAuliffe, K. People update their injunctive norm and moral beliefs after receiving descriptive norm information. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2024; :. doi: 10.1037/pspa0000416. PubMed PMID:39531693
4. Arnaoutova, I, Aratyn-Schaus, Y, Zhang, L, Packer, MS, Chen, HD, Lee, C, Gautam, S, Gregoire, FM, Leboeuf, D, Boule, S et al.. Base-editing corrects metabolic abnormalities in a humanized mouse model for glycogen storage disease type-Ia. Nat Commun. 2024;15 (1):9729. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-54108-1. PubMed PMID:39523369 PubMed Central PMC11551175
5. Shea, A, Eyal-Lubling, Y, Guerrero-Romero, D, Manzano Garcia, R, Greenwood, W, O’Reilly, M, Georgopoulou, D, Callari, M, Lerda, G, Wix, S et al.. Modeling Drug Responses and Evolutionary Dynamics using Patient-Derived Xenografts Reveals Precision Medicine Strategies for Triple Negative Breast Cancer. Cancer Res. 2024; :. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-24-1703. PubMed PMID:39514406
6. Young, L, Badihian, S, Zee, DS, Newman-Toker, DE, Kerber, KA, Bhandari, A, Bhandari, R. Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo: A case report in which four wrongs made a right. Clin Case Rep. 2024;12 (11):e9529. doi: 10.1002/ccr3.9529. PubMed PMID:39507001 PubMed Central PMC11538039
7. Ewart, SL, Maves, BE, Latona, O, Young, L, Sawtelle, V, Watts, SW, Yuzbasiyan-Gurkan, V. BRUSH Summer Research Program: Promoting Science Identity in Underrepresented Veterinary and Undergraduate Students. J Vet Med Educ. 2024; :e20240045. doi: 10.3138/jvme-2024-0045. PubMed PMID:39504223