Dr John Lee

Senior Research Fellow

School of Biomedical Sciences
Faculty of Medicine
j.lee9@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 52384

Overview

Dr. Lee is an early career researcher who has training in neuroscience, and additional experience in pharmacology and immunity. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Queensland (UQ) in 2014 and continued his post-doctoral research studies in the field of neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative diseases. He is currently an Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellow at UQ's School of Biomedical Sciences, where he focusses on innate immune and inflammatory pathways including the complement system and inflammasomes in motor neuron disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and COVID-19. Current therapies for these diseases are lacking and hence there is an urgent need for new research to identify new therapeutic targets and approaches to slow or halt disease progression. Dr. Lee’s research has demonstrated the therapeutic potential of multiple anti-inflammatory drugs targeting innate immune-mediated neuroinflammation to reduce neuronal cell death in animal models of neurodegenerative disease. He also has an emerging interest in the links between the immune system, stress response, and energy metabolism in neurodegeneration.

Research Interests

  • Motor neuron disease
    1. investigating the innate immune and inflammatory pathways 2. development of therapeutics to slow or halt disease progression 3. links between the innate immune system and energy metabolism (immunometabolism) 4. links between the innate immune system and stress response
  • Huntington's disease
    1. investigating the innate immune and inflammatory pathways 2. development of therapeutics to slow or halt disease progression 3. links between the innate immune system and energy metabolism (immunometabolism) 4. links between the innate immune system and stress response
  • Parkinson's disease
    1. investigating the innate immune and inflammatory pathways 2. development of therapeutics to slow or halt disease progression

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
  • Bachelor (Honours) of Science (Advanced), The University of Queensland

Publications

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Grants

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Supervision

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

  • Doctor Philosophy

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Available Projects

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Publications

Featured Publications

Book Chapter

  • Lee, John D., Lo, Martin W., Fung, Jenny N. T. and Woodruff, Trent M. (2022). Neuroinflammation in Huntington’s. Neurodegenerative Diseases Biomarkers. (pp. 215-233) edited by Philip V. Peplow, Bridget Martinez and Thomas A. Gennarelli. New York, NY, United States: Springer US. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1712-0_9

  • Lee, John D., Lee, Jia Y., Taylor, Stephen M., Noakes, Peter G. and Woodruff, Trent M. (2012). Innate immunity in ALS. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. (pp. 393-412) edited by Martin H. Maurer. Croatia: InTech - Open Access Publisher. doi: 10.5772/30341

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Completed Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.