Lee Lab

Systems biology of infectious diseases lab, aiming to develop mechanistic insights to the complex interface of host-pathogen interactions that can lead to impactful solutions.

Infectious diseases are 3 of the top 10 leading causes of death globally. In low-income countries, communicable diseases cause more than half of all deaths, especially among vulnerable newborns. In high-income countries such as Canada, infections account for 2-7% of deaths. Bacterial infections are often treatable using antibiotics, but chronic misuse of antibiotics has created a critical global health threat by increasing the presence of antimicrobial resistant organisms, thus further compounding the problem. 

Our group is interested in applying systems biology approaches to untangle the dynamic interactions between antimicrobial resistant pathogens and the host by:

(1)   understand host immune responses during infection, focusing on the critical area of neonatal sepsis;

(2)   characterize how bacterial pathogens can maintain or disseminate antimicrobial resistant genes in diverse environments; and

(3)   identify novel virulence or antimicrobial resistance genes in these bacterial pathogens.

For more details on current research projects, visit our research lab website.

Email: 

AMY LEE
ahl23@sfu.ca

Lab Room:

SSB 7141

Lab Phone: 

(778) 782-4596

 

 

Selected Publications

  • Shannon CP, Blimkie TM, Ben-Othman R, Gladish N, Amenyogbe N, Drissler S, Edgar RD, Chan Q, Krajden M, Foster LJ, Kobor MS, Mohn WW, Brinkman RR, Le Cao KA, Scheuermann RH, Tebbutt SJ, Hancock REW, Koff WC, Kollmann TR, Sadarangani M, Lee AH. Multi-Omic Data Integration Allows Baseline Immune Signatures to Predict Hepatitis B Vaccine Response in a Small Cohort. Front Immunol. 2020 Nov 30;11:578801. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2020.578801. PMID: 33329547; PMCID: PMC7734088.

  • Lee AH, Shannon CP, Amenyogbe N, Bennike TB, Diray-Arce J, Idoko OT, Gill EE, Ben-Othman R, Pomat WS, van Haren SD, Cao KL, Cox M, Darboe A, Falsafi R, Ferrari D, Harbeson DJ, He D, Bing C, Hinshaw SJ, Ndure J, Njie-Jobe J, Pettengill MA, Richmond PC, Ford R, Saleu G, Masiria G, Matlam JP, Kirarock W, Roberts E, Malek M, Sanchez-Schmitz G, Singh A, Angelidou A, Smolen KK; EPIC Consortium, Brinkman RR, Ozonoff A, Hancock REW, van den Biggelaar AHJ, Steen H, Tebbutt SJ, Kampmann B, Levy O, Kollmann TR. Dynamic molecular changes during the first week of human life follow a robust developmental trajectory. Nat Commun. 2019 Mar 12;10(1):1092. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-08794-x. PMID: 30862783; PMCID: PMC6414553.

  • Ng S, Strunk T, Lee AH, Gill EE, Falsafi R, Woodman T, Hibbert J, Hancock REW, Currie A. Whole blood transcriptional responses of very preterm infants during late-onset sepsis. PLoS One. 2020 Jun 1;15(6):e0233841. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233841. PMID: 32479514; PMCID: PMC7263612

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