Jungwoo Lee

B.E. Chemical Engineering Korea University, Seoul, Korea (Summa cum laude)
M.S. Biomedical Engineering University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI USA
Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI USA

Translational Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering
A significant challenge in medicine and drug development is to build realistic, pre-clinical models in order to accurately predict physiological responses of drug compounds in the human body. In response to this grand challenge, my research group aims to fill the gap between pre-clinical and clinical testing by engineering standardized and functional human tissue models that can enhance the predictive power of pre-clinical studies. Our research places particular emphasis on the bone marrow, a vital organ that is limited in study because of its anatomical inaccessibility, tissue complexity, and lack of relevant model systems with good experimental throughput. With core expertise in biomaterials, micro-fabrication, cellular engineering, and biomedical imaging, we study underlying roles of bone marrow extracellular matrices and stromal cells in forming and sustaining highly regenerative microenvironments as well as their transformation in pathological and aging processes. We also have keen interest in delivering enabling and translational platform technologies that can quantitatively capture complex, dynamic biological processes. Specifically our current research focuses on elucidating essential molecular and cellular components of bone marrow microenvironment in metastatic tumor development utilizing tissue-engineered preclinical bone marrow models. Our long-term objective is to develop therapeutic targets within the bone marrow niche, which can prevent metastasis. The science and technology under the study are expected to contribute to broad areas of research including regenerative medicine, cell transplantation, stem cell niche targeting therapeutics, tumor metastasis, immunotherapy and aging. Our research will gradually expand to create other lymphoid tissue analogues (e.g. lymph nodes, thymus, spleen) while pursuing extensive collaboration to drive adoption of these models by basic, clinical and industrial researchers in stem cell and cancer biology.