Biography

Dr. Juneyoung Lee received his PhD from the Department of Computational Biology and Medical Sciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences at The University of Tokyo in 2016. Dr. Lee studied mucosal immunology in Dr. Hiroshi Kiyono’s laboratory in the Division of Mucosal Immunology, Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo. In 2016, he joined Dr. Louise McCullough’s laboratory in the Department of Neurology at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston) as a postdoctoral research fellow. During his postdoctoral training, Dr. Lee investigated the regulatory mechanisms of the microbiome-gut-brain axis in aging and stroke. He was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship and the prestigious Lawrence M. Brass Stroke Research Award from the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American Brain Foundation. Very recently, he was awarded a Career Development Award from the AHA and the UT Rising STARs Award from the University of Texas that support his new independent research program, “Neuro-Mucosal Immunology”. In 2021, Dr. Lee was appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology, McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. Dr. Lee’s Laboratory is currently investigating therapeutic strategies for age-related neurological diseases and psychosocial stress by modulating microbial, metabolomic, immunological and metabolic profiles in the host.

Education

Doctorate
Computational Biology and Medical Science - The University of Tokyo. Japan

Areas of Interest

Clinical Interests

  • Aging
  • Ischemic Stroke
  • Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy
  • Loneliness and Social Isolation

Research Interests

  • Neuro-immune Interactions
  • Host-microbe Interactions
  • Inter-organ Communication
  • Host metabolism
  • Bacteriotherapy

Dr. Lee’s Laboratory of Neuro-Mucosal Immunology explores (1) neuro-immune interactions, (2) host-microbe interactions, (3) inter-organ communication and (4) host metabolism. Specifically, these interdisciplinary studies include investigating the bidirectional communication between the brain, host mucosal tissues (e.g., gastrointestinal, respiratory and urogenital tracts) and metabolic tissues (e.g., liver and adipose tissues) in the context of age-related neurological diseases and psychosocial stress. The Lee Laboratory aims to interrogate the unknown mechanisms and target dysregulation in diseases with the goal of identifying novel therapeutic options by utilizing state-of-art techniques for metagenomics (e.g., microbiome), metabolomics and flow cytometry. Very recently, the Lee Laboratory has also established two experimental platforms within the laboratory for translational and innovative research: (1) patient induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)-derived organoids and assembloids and (2) single-cell and spatial transcriptomics and related key instruments for single-cell RNA sequencing study.

Publications

  1. Lee J, d’Aigle J, Atadja L, Quaicoe V, Honarpisheh P, Ganesh BP, Hassan A, Graf J, Petrosino J, Putluri N, Zhu L, Durgan DJ, Bryan RM Jr, McCullough LD, Venna VR. Gut microbiota-derived short-chain fatty acids promote poststroke recovery in aged mice. Circulation Research. 2020 Jul 31;127(4):453-465.
  2. Lee J, Venna VR, Durgan DJ, Shi H, Hudobenko J, Putluri N, Petrosino J, McCullough LD, Bryan RM. Young versus aged microbiota transplants to germ-free mice: increased short-chain fatty acids and improved cognitive performance. Gut Microbes. 2020 Nov 9;12(1):1-14.
  3. Lee J, Mohsen A, Banerjee A, McCullough LD, Mizuguchi K, Shimaoka M, Kiyono H, Park EJ. Distinct age-specific miRegulome profiling of isolated small and large intestinal epithelial cells in mice. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2021 Mar 29;22(7):3544.
  4. Honarpisheh P, Lee J, Banerjee A, Blasco-Conesa MP, Honarpisheh P, d’Aigle J, Mamun AA, Ritzel RM, Chauhan A, Ganesh BP, McCullough LD. Potential caveats of putative microglia-specific markers for assessment of age-related cerebrovascular neuroinflammation. Journal of Neuroinflammation. 2020 Dec 1;17(1):366.
  5. Lee J, Park EJ, Yuki Y, Ahmad S, Mizuguchi K, Ishii KJ, Shimaoka M, Kiyono H. Profiles of microRNA networks in intestinal epithelial cells in a mouse model of colitis. Scientific Reports. 2015 Dec 9;5:18174.