Search
Loading Complete
Hungoo Lee

Hungoo Lee, PhD

Highlights

Languages

  • English

Gender

Male

Johns Hopkins Affiliations:

  • Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty

About Hungoo Lee

Physician’s Office Phone

443-287-0924

Primary Academic Title

Assistant Professor of Genetic Medicine

Background

Hungoo's long-term research interest is to understand the diverse layers of transcriptional regulation so that we can identify the molecular mechanisms of devastating human diseases caused by dysregulation in transcription and utilize the knowledge for developing therapeutic approaches.

Especially, he has been studying molecular mechanisms of epigenetic abnormalities by the expanded long tandem repeats in Fragile X syndrome. During his Postdoc in Dr. Jeannie Lee’s lab at Harvard Medical School, he identified the molecular mechanisms that can tackle the root cause by inducing the shortening of the pathogenic long tandem repeats in Fragile X patient cells. Before his postdoc, he earned his Ph.D. in epigenetics and molecular biology in the laboratory of Dr. Vincenzo Pirrotta, where his dissertation work focused on the genome-wide epigenetic regulatory roles of Polycomb group proteins and Trithorax group proteins especially at the intergenic regions. Before his Ph.D., he worked as a computational biologist at Dong-a Seetech IT company and studied a condition-specific transcriptional regulatory network in yeast. By combining his diverse background in computational biology, epigenetics, and RNA biology, he plans to tackle the diverse repeat expansion diseases including Huntington's, Myotonic Dystrophy, Friedreich's ataxia, ALS, and other autism spectrum disorders by understanding why the patients show increased repeat instability.

Centers and Institutes

  • McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine

LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hungoo-lee-3319548a/

X Profile

https://twitter.com/HungooLeeLab

Recent News Articles and Media Coverage

  • R-loop, CGG repeat  Fragile X Syndrome, BRIC (August 22, 2023)
  • New gene-editing method flags fragile X mutation for repair, Transmitter(July 5th 2023)
  • Potential New Treatment for a Leading Cause of Autism, Neuroscience News( May 19th, 2023)

Contact for Research Inquiries

Miller Research Building Rm 449

733 N. Broadway Baltimore MD 21205

Hlee308@jh.edu

office: 443-287-0924

Research Interests

Epigenetics, Repeat Expansion Disorders, Neurological Diseases, Autism Spectrum Disorder, R-loop, DNA methylation, Histone modification, Polycomb, Computational Biology

Lab Website

HungooLeeLab.org

Research Summary

Epigenetic Mechanisms of Repeat Expansion Diseases

We aim to unveil the underlying epigenetic mechanisms of diverse human diseases including repeat expansion diseases (e.g., Fragile X syndrome, Huntington’s, Myotonic Dystrophy, Friedreich’s Ataxia, and ALS) and cancer.

By studying molecular mechanisms of repeat-mediated human diseases, we will address three major questions:

  1. What causes genome instability that leads to repeat expansion in Human diseases?

  2. How do these expanded repeats contribute to the disease phenotype by inducing epigenetic changes?

  3. How can we remove the root cause by preventing repeat expansion and/or inducing contraction? 

By answering these questions, we can develop novel therapeutic approaches for tackling the root causes of diseases involving repeat instability and better understand how our genome integrity is maintained.

Google Scholar - Publications

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bVHpsUsAAAAJ&hl=en

PubMed - Publications

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Lee+HG&cauthor_id=36440760

Research Gate - Research Profile

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hun-Goo-Lee

Selected Publications

  • Hun-Goo Lee, Sachiko Imaichi, Elizabeth Kraeutler, Rodrigo Aguilar, Yong-Woo Lee, Steven D. Sheridan, and Jeannie T. Lee. “Site-specific R-loops induce CGG repeat contraction and Fragile X gene reactivation” Cell, 2023 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.04.035.

  • Carlos Rivera †, Hun-Goo Lee †, Anna Lappala, Danni Wang, Verónica Noches, Montserrat Olivares-Costa, Marcela Sjöberg Herrera, Jeannie T. Lee, and María Estela Andrés. “Unveiling RCOR1 as a rheostat at transcriptionally permissive chromatin” Nature Communications 2022 († authors contributed equally to the work)

  • Hun-Goo Lee, Tatyana G. Kahn, Amanda Simcox, Yuri B. Schwartz, and Vincenzo Pirrotta, “Genome-wide activities of Polycomb complexes control pervasive transcription”, Genome Research, 2015 May 18. pii: gr.188920.114.

  • Hun-Goo Lee†, Hyosoo Lee†, Sang-Hoon Jeon, Tae-Hoon Chung, and Won-Ki Huh, “High-Resolution Analysis of Condition Specific Transcriptional Regulatory Modules in S. cerevisiae”, Genome Biology, 2008, 9:R2

Patents

“Compositions and Methods for the Treatment of Conditions Associated with Nucleotide Repeat Expansion”, USPTO

Honors

  • Lotte Foundation Scholarship,2001&2005.
  • Anne B. and James B. Leathem Fellowship,2013
  • Mogam Science Foundation Scholarship 2020
  • New England Bioscience Society (NEBS)-Legochem Award 2023
  • Korean American Society in Biotech and Pharmaceuticals (KASBP)-KAIST GCC Award, 2023                
  • Korean Society for Stem Cell Research (KSSCR)/KBioX-Young Scientists Award, 2023                
  • Hanmi Next Generation Investigator Award, Korean Society of Molecular and Cell Biology, 2023                
  • Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative Bridge To Independence Award, 2024                

Graduate Program Affiliations

Human Genetics and Genomics Graduate Program (HGG)

Expertise

Education

  • Rutgers University, Ph.D., 2014