Developmental Biology Program

The Joo-Hyeon Lee Lab

Research

Joo-Hyeon Lee
Joo-Hyeon Lee, PhD
Associate Member

The Lee laboratory studies the mechanisms governing homeostatic turnover and reparative programs in stem cells, with a focus on elucidating how tissue perturbations lead to lung disease.

Projects: 

  • Elucidate the behaviors of stem cells and their niches during lung development, regeneration and disease.
  • Define the cellular and molecular characteristics of damage-induced plasticity and its functional role in lung regeneration and disease.
  • Define the mechanisms that mediate mutant cell competition in the context of ageing, inflammation, and injury.
  • Understand human lung regeneration and disease by investigating tissue mechanics and developing ex vivo human lung models.

We investigate how stem cells perceive environmental changes and determine their cell fate, and how niches form and remodel the local environment during lung development, regeneration and disease. To address these fundamental questions, we employ a multidisciplinary approach integrating genetic mouse models with lineage-tracing techniques, primary mouse and human lung organoids with genetic tools, quantitative biophysical modeling of clonal dynamics with high-resolution imaging techniques, and single-cell biology with computational analysis. Our goal is to elucidate the normal process of lung dynamics and lay the foundation for understanding lung diseases and developing new therapeutic methods.

Publications Highlights

England FE, Bordeu I, Ng ME, Bang J, Kim B, Choi J, Cardoso EC, Koo BK, Simons BD#, Lee JH#. Sustained NF-kB activation allows mutant alveolar stem cells to co-opt a regeneration program for tumor initiation. Cell Stem Cell. 2025 Mar 6;32(3):375-90.e9.
 
Choi J, Jang YJ, Dabrowska C, Iich E, Evans K.V, Hall H, Janes S.M, Simons B.D, Koo BK, Kim J#, Lee JH#. Release of Notch signalling coordinated by inflammation confers cross-compartment differentiation plasticity during alveolar regeneration. Nature Cell Biology. 2021 Sep;23(9):953-966.
 
Youk J, Kim T, Evans K.V, Jeong YI, Hur Y, Hong SP, Kim JH, Yi K, Kim SY, Na KJ, Bleazard T, Kim HM, Fellows M, Mahbubani K.T, Saeb-Parsy K, Kim SY, Kim YT#, Koh GY#, Choi BS#, Ju YS#, Lee JH#. Three-dimensional human alveolar stem cell culture models reveal infection response to SARS-CoV-2. Cell Stem Cell. 2020 Dec 3;27(6):905-19.e10.
 
Choi J, Park JE, Tsagkogeorga G, Koo BK, Han N, and Lee JH. Inflammatory signals induce AT2 cell-derived Damage-Associated Transient Progenitors that mediate alveolar regeneration. Cell Stem Cell. 2020 Sep 3;27(3):366-82.e7. 

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People

Joo-Hyeon Lee

Joo-Hyeon Lee, PhD

Associate Member

  • The Lee laboratory studies the mechanisms governing homeostatic turnover and reparative programs in stem cells, with a focus on elucidating how tissue perturbations lead to lung disease.
  • PhD, Korea Advance Institute of Science and Technology
leej49@mskcc.org
Email Address

Members

Administrative Assistant
Erik Caeiro Cardoso
Graduate Research Assistant
Bumsoo Kim
Research Fellow
Graduate Research Student
Lucas Loffredo
Research Fellow
Graduate Research Student
Research Fellow
Research Technician

Achievements

  • Wellcome Discovery Research Platforms Award (2023)
  • Wellcome Discovery Award (2022)
  • Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship (2021)
  • SUHF Young Investigator Award (2020)
  • European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant Award (2016)
  • Wellcome Sir Henry Dale Fellowship (2016)

Open Positions

To learn more about available postdoctoral opportunities, please visit our Career Center

To learn more about compensation and benefits for postdoctoral researchers at MSK, please visit Resources for Postdocs

General Opportunity

We are looking for highly motivated, reliable, and collaborative scientists of all levels (Research technician, Graduate student, Postdoctoral fellow) interested in addressing fundamental questions in development, tissue regeneration, tissue engineering, and early oncogenesis.

Apply now

Get in Touch

Disclosures

Members of the MSK Community often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community. These activities outside of MSK further our mission, provide productive collaborations, and promote the practical application of scientific discoveries.

MSK requires doctors, faculty members, and leaders to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public. Not all disclosed interests and relationships present conflicts of interest. MSK reviews all disclosed interests and relationships to assess whether a conflict of interest exists and whether formal COI management is needed.

Joo-Hyeon Lee discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

No disclosures meeting criteria for time period


The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.


This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2024 through disclosure submission in spring 2025). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at ecoi@mskcc.org.


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