Jung Lee, Ph.D. 
Associate Professor | Milwaukee School of Engineering
Milwaukee, WI, UNITED STATES
Dr. Jung Lee is an expert in bioinformatics, drug design and molecular modeling.
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Education, Licensure and Certification (6)
I-Corps National Program Training Certificate: National Science Foundation 2016
Training Certificate: Biosafety Level 2 (BSL-2) 2016
Bioreactor and Fermentor Training: With Charles Villan 2015
Ph.D.: Bioinformatics and Medicinal Chemistry, The University of Texas at Austin 2003
M.S.: Quantum and Computational Chemistry, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology 1991
B.S.: Chemistry, Kyung Hee University at Seoul 1989
Biography
Dr. Jung Lee joined the faculty at Milwaukee School of Engineering in 2011 and is currently an associate professor in the Physics and Chemistry Department. Lee is also part of a team of faculty and students working on a National Science Foundation I-Corp funded research project titled “Developing an Artificial Red-Blood-Cell Product.” He also has been involved with the Clinical and Translational Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin (CTSI), and the MSOE Center for BioMolecular Modeling. He will be serving as the Milwaukee section chair of the American Chemical Society in 2021.
Areas of Expertise (7)
Molecular Modeling
Computational Biology
Chemistry
Biomolecular Engineering
Bioinformatics
Systems Biology
Drug Design
Accomplishments (5)
Karl O. Werwath Engineering Research Award
MSOE, 2017
Finalist for the Falk Engineering Educator Award
MSOE, 2016 & 2017
Korean Government National Honors Fellowship
1989 - 1991
William Orr Dingwall Scholarship
1999 - 2000
Johnson & Johnson Endowed Graduate Scholarship,
1998 - 1999
Affiliations (20)
- Society for Biological Engineering : Member
- Molecular Modeling in Life Sciences : Member
- Drug Discovery Biology Community : Member
- American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists : Member
- Bioinformatics Computing : Member
- Comparative Genomics : Member
- Genomics : Member
- Computational Biology : Member
- Computational Proteomics : Member
- NexGen Sequencing : Member
- Systems Biology : Member
- Systems Biology for Medical Research : Member
- American Society for Cell Biology : Member
- American Society of Human Genetics : Member
- American Institute of Chemical Engineers : Member
- American Chemical Society : Member
- International Society for Computational Biology : Member
- Fragment-Based Drug Discovery : Member
- Journal of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Research : Editor
- International Journal of Structural and Computational Biology : Editor
Media Appearances (2)
Awards honor outstanding faculty members
MSOE News
2017-09-11
Dr. Jung Lee, assistant professor in the Physics and Chemistry Department, received the Karl O. Werwath Engineering Research Award.
MSOE Students Bioengineer a Medical Breakthrough With Synthetic Blood
The Milwaukee Independent
2017-05-26
Dr. Zhang originally advised an MSOE biomolecular engineering senior project team with Dr. Jung Lee, assistant professor, which was working to optimize an oral drug delivery system that used pectin-encapsulated curcumin to treat colon cancer.
Event and Speaking Appearances (5)
Biodata Science
Guest lecture for CS-4981 (Topics in Computer Science, Dr. RJ Nowling)
2018-09-28
Computational Tool Development to Identify and Visualize Protein-Protein Interactions
MSOE Fall Forum
2018-09-18
jBPCI: A Bioinformatics Tool to Identify Basepairs and Their Conformations in RNA Structure
Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science & Education Lewiston, ME
2017-08-06
Red Blood Cell Engineering
NSF I-Corps National Program Final Presentation Austin, TX
2016-08-18
Visualization and Model Building of Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor in Complex with ISO-66
Gordon Research Conference on Visualization in Science & Education Lewiston, ME
2015-08-02
Research Grants (4)
Summer Faculty Development Grant
MSOE
2018
I-Corps National Program Grant
NSF
2016 With Dr. Wujie Zhang and Mr. Gene Wright
Pilot Award
CTSI
2015
Summer Faculty Development Grant
MSOE
2015
Selected Publications (5)
Are Genes and Their Mutations Responsible for Disease?
International Journal of Structural and Computational BiologyLee, J. C.
2017 For more than 45 years since the War on Cancer in 1971, the ruling conceptual framework on fighting disease has been, and still is, on hunting for genes and their mutations, churning out countless “promising” breakthroughs, none of which really panned out into treatment. As the human genome was declared “completed” in 2003, gene-obsessed scientists turned to whole-exome sequencing, in the guise of Personalized Medicine, striving to comparatively identify all the deleterious mutations likely to cause “personalized” disease. Nonetheless, the genome-guided Personalized Medicine is not that guaranteed either. This review is not merely to discuss the inherent problems around the common wisdom on disease, but to document a growing number of multidimensional evidences, all coming together to point to one thing: genetic mutation is not behind disease.
Does Sequence Dictate Structure Which Dictates Function?
International Journal of Structural and Computational BiologyLee, J. C.
2017 Bioinformatics tools and computational methods to predict biomolecular structure from sequence has been and still is in constant development, originally motivated by the Anfinsen’s dogma on protein folding. The dogma was the very basis for the development of the extremely widely accepted notion that “sequence dictates structure which dictates function.” Nonetheless, the dogma does not support the concept of divergent evolution, the most common form of evolution in nature, but support the concept of convergent evolution, creating several major problems in its application to biomolecular structure prediction. Besides, the dogma ignores homology, the most important requirement for the successful use of comparative sequence analysis, which is the most powerful and most widely used Bioinformatics tool to align homologous sequences not only to infer RNA secondary structures accurately, but also derive evolutionary relationships between diverse organisms. Now is the time to revisit the dogma and throw the ingrained and flawed conventional notion away, followed by adopting a new notion: “Function dictates structure which, in turn, dictates sequence.”
Design of Artificial Red Blood Cells using Polymeric Hydrogel Microcapsules: Hydrogel Stability Improvement and Polymer Selection
The International Journal of Artificial OrgansZhang W., Bissen M. J., Savela E. S., Clausen J. N., Fredricks S. J., Guo X., Paquin Z. R., Dohn R. P., Pavelich I. J., Polovchak A. L., Wedemeyer M. J.
2016 To improve the stability of pectin-oligochitosan hydrogel microcapsules under physiological conditions.
Development of a Microscale Red Blood Cell-Shaped Pectin-Oligochitosan Hydrogel System Using an Electrospray-Vibration Method: Preparation and Characterization
Journal of Applied Biomaterials & Functional MaterialsCrouse J. Z., Mahuta K. M., Mikulski B. A., Harvestine J. N., Guo X., Lee J. C., Kaltchev M. G., Midelfort K. S., Tritt C. S., Chen J., Zhang W.
2015 To develop and characterize a microscale pectin-oligochitosan hydrogel microcapsule system that could be applied in such biological fields as drug delivery, cell immobilization/encapsulation, and tissue engineering.
Novel Pectin-based Carriers for Colonic Drug Delivery
Pharmaceutical Development and TechnologyZhang W. , Mahuta K. M., Mikulski B. A., Harvestine J. N., Crouse J. Z., Lee J. C., Kaltchev M. G., Tritt C. S..
2014 Pectin-based hydrogel carriers have been studied and shown to have promising applications for drug delivery to the lower GI tract, especially to the colonic region. However, making sure these hydrogel carriers can pass through the upper GI tract and reach the targeted regions, after oral administration, still remains a challenge to overcome. A solution to this problem is to promote stronger cross-linking interactions within the pectin-based hydrogel network. The combined usage of a divalent cation (Ca2+) and the cationic biopolymer oligochitosan has shown to improve the stability of pectin-based hydrogel systems – suggesting that these two cross-linkers may be used to eventually help improve pectin-based hydrogel systems for colonic drug delivery methods.
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