Research Overview

Welcome to the lab of Professor Hyung Ho Lee!

Our laboratory is broadly interested in membrane receptors/channels and the interplays between proteins and biological membranes. Our principal goal is to exploit mechanistic and structural information on them to interrogate and therapeutically impact human disease. We ask how ligand recognition and signaling coordinate with the downstream signaling and physiology of the cell.

Membrane receptors/channels represent the gateway through which the cell senses and responds to its environment. Most physiologically important processes are initiated by the interaction of membrane receptors with extracellular mediators. This recognition event is communicated across the membrane, resulting in activation of intracellular signal transduction cascades. We ask how information is transmitted across the cell membrane at the molecular level.

The philosophy of our lab is to use a battery of powerful approaches to uncover molecular mechanisms. It is easy to agree that "Seeing is believing". The roots of our research are in the power of cryo-electron microscopy and x-ray crystallography to reveal the structures of biomolecules at atomic level, leading to insights into the physical basis of protein-protein interactions. The core approach is complemented by various biochemical, biophysical, and cell biological studies in solution or on membranes. These include mass spectrometry, biochemical reconstitution, and cell imaging.
The structures of receptors/channels or membrane-associated proteins are also crucial in molecular pharmacology. Molecular insight into recognition and activation of receptors/channels implicated in human disease could reveal new strategies for therapeutic intervention using protein engineering. Three dimensional structures of drug target proteins can also be used directly to discover and optimize new lead compounds by structure-based drug discovery (SBDD) method.

Follow the Current Interest link for details on individual projects in the lab.