Jae K Lee

Jae K Lee is a Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami, affiliated with the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis since 2011. His research bridges fundamental neuroscience and translational applications to develop regenerative therapies for central nervous system injuries, with emphasis on spinal cord and traumatic brain injury.

His academic credentials include a PhD in Neuroscience from Georgetown University (2005), MS (2000) and BS (1997) from George Washington University. Postdoctoral training at UC San Diego was supported by an NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Fellowship focusing on axon regeneration inhibitors.

Lee's laboratory investigates neuroinflammatory mechanisms driving glial and fibrotic scar formation after CNS trauma. Key research areas include macrophage/microglia regulation of gliosis, NG2 cell contributions to scar formation, and perivascular fibroblast roles in fibrotic scarring. Methodologies integrate transcriptomics, bioinformatics, high-content assays, and in vivo surgical models to identify therapeutic targets for enhancing neural repair.

Publication analysis reveals consistent focus on immune cell dynamics in CNS injury, with recent work leveraging single-cell technologies to dissect cellular heterogeneity in traumatic brain/spinal cord injury models. Emerging themes include PI3K/TNFR2 signaling pathways in macrophage/oligodendrocyte function and computational approaches for cell-cell interaction mapping.

His scientific recognition includes:

• UM Neuroscience Graduate Program Faculty Mentor of the Year
• University of Miami Junior Faculty Award
• Association of Korean Neuroscientists award
• NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Post-doctoral Fellowship

As an active neuroscience graduate program member, Lee serves as lecturer, course director, and steering committee member while mentoring undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs. His lab at the Miami Project maintains collaborations with immunology and bioinformatics teams to advance scar-modulation therapies, supported by multiple NIH grants targeting neuroinflammation and regeneration pathways.

The Lee Lab specifically studies how CNS/non-CNS cell interactions form protective yet inhibitory barriers after injury, with current projects examining NG2 cell differentiation into astrocytes and macrophage-mediated fibrotic scar development to identify novel regeneration-promoting strategies.