Jeffrey E. Lee, Ph.D.
Professor, Canada Research Chair in Structural Virology
Jeff completed his undergraduate studies at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1995-1999). He pursued his graduate studies with Dr. P. Lynne Howell at the University of Toronto/Hospital for Sick Children (1999-2005) and followed that up with a post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Erica Ollmann Saphire at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA (2005-2010). Jeff returned back to the University of Toronto to start his own lab in July 2010. His career has been highlighted with a number of fellowships and awards, such as a Canada Research Chair in Structural Virology, 2015 Merck Irving S Sigal Award (American Society of Microbiology), CIHR New Investigator Award, 2010 Spicer Young Investigator Award (Stanford University/Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource), 2009 NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, 2006 Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal, and CIHR Postdoctoral and Doctoral Fellowships.
Karen Siu, Ph.D.
Senior Research Associate
Karen obtained her BSc from Simon Fraser University and completed her PhD in Dr. P. Lynne Howell’s lab at the University of Toronto, Dept. of Biochemistry. She has received multiple national fellowships—NSERC Post-Graduate Scholarship, CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarship and CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship. Karen manages the crystallization facility and oversees general operations in the lab.
Patrick Yip
Technician
Patrick has over 20+ years of experience as a research technician. He manages the cell culture and protein expression facility in the lab.
Naasson Mbenza Mbambi
Postdoctoral Fellow
Naasson completed his MSc from Kyoto University and his PhD in Chemical Sciences from the University of Auckland (NZ) in 2021. He joined the Lee lab in March of 2022.
Zengwei Kou
Postdoctoral Fellow
Zengwei completed his PhD at Fudan University (China), studying the structure-function relationship of AMPA receptors. He joined the Lee lab in Oct 2023.
Wenguang He
Ph.D. Student
Wen completed his BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry at the University of Manitoba. He joined the Lee Lab in Sept 2016 and is co-supervised by Dr. Michael Ohh (LMP/Biochemistry UToronto).
Emily Forster, M.Sc.
Ph.D. Student
Emily completed her BSc in Molecular Biology at Johns Hopkins University and her MSc in Biology at New York University. She joined the Lee lab in August of 2021 as a PhD student.
Juliette Lee
M.Sc. Student
Juliette completed her BSc (Hons) in Pathobiology and Immunology at the University of Toronto. She is the recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and CIHR CGS-M and joined the Lee lab in September of 2021 for graduate research.
Xinyin Wang
M.Sc. Student
Xinyin completed her BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry at the University of British Columbia. She is the recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and joined the Lee lab in September of 2023 for graduate research.
Manus Yu
M.Sc. Student
Manus completed his BSc (Hons) in Immunology at the University of Western Ontario. He joined the Lee lab in September of 2023 for graduate research.
Alice Liu
UBC Co-op student
Dustin Yang
Project student
Abenan Thayaparan
Project student
Aaron Chan
Project student
Gino Lee
Work study
Vivian Liu
Work study
Alumni
Postdoctoral Fellows/Research Associate: Peter Quashie (Senior Research Fellow, University of Ghana), George Bikopolous (Staff at York University), Azmiri Sultana (Staff at UToronto), Vitor Hugo Balasco Serrão (Research Specialist at University of California Santa Cruz); Tyler Vance
Graduate Students: Halil Aydin, PhD (Assistant Prof. at University of Colorado Boulder), Matthew Taylor, JD, MSc (Associate at Rochon Genova), Jonathan Cook, PhD, MD (Resident physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre), Farshad Azimi, PhD, Trevor Dean, MSc (University of Illinois PhD student)
Undergraduate Students: Nikki Cavandi, Sarah Cao (MD at WesternU), Briana Smrke (Ontario Government), Lewis Liu, Sofiya Lazarova (UBC graduate school), Kate Twohig (UBC MSc Public Health), Haroon Muhammed, Syed Hasan, Markus Korpella (UHelsinki), Amanda Kelsall (MD at UOttawa), Hazel Soto-Montoya (technician at UToronto), Brandon Ho (UToronto graduate school), Hanna Lem (technician at Stanford University), Dina Al-Khooly, David Dai (UToronto MSc Public Health), Alena Zelinka (UToronto graduate school), Klarizza Panaligan (Sanofi-Pasteur), Aynaz Khodayari, Annoj Thavalingam (UToronto graduate school), Minjie Mai, Vivian Zhou, Cody Cherepuschak, Helen Tran, Murtaza Khawaja, Chanhee Park (UToronto Dentistry), Ying Quan, Elaina Corrado, Rami Ajaj, Cassie Zhang, Randy Yoo, Adree Khondker, Young June Kim, Diana Gawol; David Saag; Rachel Chiang
Technician: Mehrnaz Amani (technician at SGC, UToronto)