Seung-Jae Lee

Prof. Seung-Jae Lee is one of the leading scientists in the field of neurodegenerative diseases with special emphasis on Parkinson’s disease and related movement disorders and dementia. His research is centred around the role of protein aggregation in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. He has been developing and analysing the cellular and animal models of protein aggregation and studied basic principles of biological processes leading to protein aggregation and the clearance of the aggregates. Recently, his research focused on the mechanism of progression of protein aggregate pathology and the interplay between protein aggregation and neuroinflammation. His research now also includes the development of novel therapeutic drugs for Parkinson’s disease and related movement disorders.
Prof. Lee started his research group as an assistant professor at the Parkinson’s Institute in Sunnyvale, CA in 2000, where he developed a research program for the study of pathophysiology of alpha-synuclein. He then moved to Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea in 2006, where he continued his work on alpha-synuclein and performed a series of studies on alpha-synuclein secretion and its roles in aggregate propagation and neuroinflammation. In 2015, Prof. Lee moved to Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea, as a full professor. While he continues the work on alpha-synuclein and Lewy body diseases, Prof. Lee is currently expanding the spectrum of his research program that now includes tau and amyloid beta.
Prof. Lee received undergraduate education at Seoul National University and graduate training at POSTECH. He performed postdoctoral work at National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, and then at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA.
Prof. Lee has been an active member of several domestic and international scientific societies. He is currently serving as an associate editor for Experimental & Molecular Medicine.