Dr. Jeffrey Lee received his Ph.D. (2005) in Biochemistry from the University of Toronto, before pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship in structural virology with Dr. Erica Ollmann Saphire at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. In 2010, he returned back to the University of Toronto as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology. His career has been highlighted with a number of awards and honors, including a Canada Research Chair in Structural Virology, CIHR New Investigator award, 2010 Spicer Young Investigator from Stanford University/SSRL, 2006 Canadian Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal, CIHR fellowships, among others.
Dr. Lee’s laboratory in structural virology is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms at play in the tug-of-war between viruses and the host. He wants to understand how certain retroviruses enter cells and are then antagonized by innate immune molecules. Immunological recognition and restriction of viral pathogens is fundamental for fighting infectious disease. He employs a combination of X-ray crystallography with molecular biological, virological and biophysical techniques to understand these host-pathogen interactions.
