Ki-Young Lee
Professor
PhD (Doctor of Philosophy)
Post-doctoral Fellowship
Contact information
Location
Courses
CMMB/MDSC 561 (Cancer Biology), 2002-2018
Research Activities
Research Activities
Research Personnel:
Jungkwon Lee, Postdoctoral Fellow
Patrick Sipila, PhD student
Hamza Kanram, MSc student
Undergraduate students: Joan Chu and Baasil Afzal
Research interests:
My research interest is to elucidate how cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (cdk5) and its related protein, cdk5 regulatory subunit-associated protein 2 (cdk5rap2), regulate specialized cell functions. The major questions that we wish to address are: how they are regulated, what their downstream targets are, how they interact with these targets, and how they are involved in diverse signaling pathways to drive and regulate cellular events. Our recent studies suggest that cdk5rap2 plays a role in stem cell self-renewal. Interestingly, we also found that depletion of cdk5rap2 induces senescence-like phenotype. Our hypothesis is that cdk5rap2 is required for NSC self-renewal and loss of cdk5rap2 promotes senescence. Thus, our goal is to elucidate the significance of cdk5rap2 in NSC self-renewal and how its loss induces senescence. To pursue this objective, we are utilizing gain- and loss-of function analyses in two well-established human NSC derived from developing human brains in conjunction with modern and conventional techniques in cell and molecular biology and biochemistry. Results from our investigations will significantly advance our knowledge on the fundamental cell and molecular biology of stemness and senescence. Other ongoing research projects in my lab are: (i) to investigate the molecular basis for cdk5 loss/PARP1i synthetic lethality, (ii) to elucidate the molecular mechanism by which cdk5 regulates intracellular calcium release, (iii) to identify resistance biomarkers for acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) chemotherapies that can stratify patients and tailor personalized chemotherapy, and (iv) to investigate a role of cdk5 in Alzheimer's pathogenesis in 5XFAD and triple transgenic mouse models that recapitulate the learning and memory deficits, Aβ oligomerization and tau hyperphosphorylation in AD brain.
Biography
2019-present General Faculty Council (GFC) Member, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. Canada.
2019/7 Invited Speaker/Session Chair, 4th Global Insight Conference on Breast Cancer, London, UK
2018 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)'s CM2 Grant Panel Member
2014-2016 CIHR's New Investigator Panel Member.
2012/9 - 2015/8 General Faculty Council (GFC) Member, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. Canada.
2012-present Full Professor/Tenured, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. Canada.
2012/2 - 2015/7 Symposium Chair, Canada Korea Conference, Association of Korean-Canadian Scientist and Engineers (AKCSE)
2012-2014 CIHR Fellowships-Post-PhD Awards Committee Member
2011-2013 Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF), Grant Review Panel Member
2012/2 - 2015/7 Board of Directors, Association of Korean-Canadian Scientist and Engineers (AKCSE)
2011/9 - 2013/4 Vice-President, Association of Korean-Canadian Scientists and Engineers (AKCSE)-Calgary
2012/9 - 2013/3 Board of Directors, Faculty Association Faculty Association, University of Calgary
2004/7 - 2012/3 Associate Professor, Department of Cell Biology & Anatomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. Canada
2011/3 - 2012/2 Liaison Officer in Calgary, Consulate General of Korea in Vancouver
2008/5 - 2011/12 Founding President, Calgary Korean Scholarship Foundation (CKSF)
2003/1 - 2011/8 Director, Peptide Synthesis Core Facility, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary
2004/7 - 2011/6 AHFMR Senior Scholar, AHFMR
1999/7 - 2004/6 AHFMR Scholar, AHFMR
1999/7 - 2004/6 Assistant Professor, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. Canada.
2002/2 - 2003/3 Associate Editor, Journal of Alzheimer's Disease
1996/4 – 1999/6 Adj. Assisant Professor, Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. Canada
1993/9 - 1996/7 AHFMR Fellow, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB., Canada
Publications
Awards
Awards
Named as a scientist who made Korea shine by the Biological Research Information Center (BRIC) in Korea: http://www.ibric.org/ (2019)
Finalist, Hadassah Ksienski Distinguished Service Award (2012)
Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) Senior Scholarship (2004-2011)
AHFMR Scholarship (1999-2004)
Grants
CIHR project grant
VPR catalyst grant
NSERC grant