Research Areas

Dr. Lee has focused on basic and translational studies on a role of deregulated microRNAs in tumorigenesis and developing a strategy to treat brain tumors using cutting edge RNA-based nanoparticles. Brain tumors are the second-leading cause of cancer-related death with limited options of treatment. My research mainly involves novel nanoparticle based on pRNA derived from the DNA packaging motor of bacteriophage Phi29 for successful delivery of therapeutic microRNAs into brain tumors. I developed a new RNA nanoparticle loaded with various siRNA or microRNA by engineering pRNA from phi29, and further modified them to fit for tumor cell recognition, internalization and delivery of cargo RNA molecule. First batch of RNA nanoparticle has shown to successfully penetrate the blood brain barrier and deliver a cargo siRNA of Luciferase reporter gene in mice model system bearing intracranial tumor, provided a proof-of-concept for efficient delivery of therapeutic RNAs for the treatment of brain tumors. When the anti-miR-21 carrying RNA nanoparticles were systemically administered, growth of glioblastoma xenograft in mouse brain was significantly reduced through reactivation of multiple tumor suppressors released from suppression by the elevated miR-21. The series of work was published in peer-reviewed journals, Oncotarget, Methods in Molecular Biology and Molecular Therapy. I have also actively participated in several other studies that examined the role of oncogenic or tumor suppressive microRNAs in various type of human cancers, which were published in well-known peer-reviewed journals including Cancer Cell, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Journal of Experimental Medicine, Clinical Cancer Research, and Oncotarget. Dr. Lee has a long-term goal in his research to make a visible impact on the development of reliable strategy for cancer therapy by reprograming deregulated microRNAs in cancer patients by designing novel and innovative RNA nanoparticles that can be applied to future human clinical trials.