MinJae Lee, PhD

Biography

Dr. MinJae Lee is a tenured Professor of Biostatistics at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. She serves as Director of the Division of Clinical and Translational Sciences, Department of Internal Medicine, and Director of the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) Core of the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS).

Dr. Lee’s research focuses on developing and applying innovative statistical methods to address methodological challenges encountered in biomedical, clinical, and translational research. She has extensive experience working in multidisciplinary research environments at academic medical centers and has developed successful collaborations with investigators across a wide range of specialties. Her collaborative research spans areas including cancer and chronic disease prevention and treatment, behavioral and lifestyle interventions, acute and chronic disease biomarkers, population health research, highly correlated exposure data, multisite, multilevel, and longitudinal studies, and intervention study design and analysis.

Through these collaborative scientific activities, Dr. Lee has identified statistical challenges arising from complex real-world data and developed methodological solutions to address clinically relevant research questions. Her methodological research includes quantile-based and non-/semiparametric methods, heterogeneity in treatment and intervention effects, censored and truncated data arising from limits of detection in biomarkers and environmental measurements, correlated multivariable data, and missing data in longitudinal and multilevel studies. A central focus of her work is translating methodological innovation into practical statistical approaches that can be appropriately applied to real-world biomedical and population-health data.

Dr. Lee is also actively involved in graduate education and mentoring of students, trainees, investigators, and junior faculty. She contributes to institutional and national academic service through grant review, editorial activities, and research oversight. She serves on the Nature Medicine Statistical Advisory Panel and has served as Methods Editor for the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, as well as an Associate Editor and editorial-board member for several statistical, clinical, and public-health journals.