2024
April 16, 2024:
Dr. Lee is the recipient of the NSF Career Award! The NSF award will support our research and education on breast cancer-related secondary lymphedema.
Cornell BME News: “Esak Lee awarded NSF CAREER grant for lymphedema in breast cancer research”
April 5, 2024:
Big congratulations to Dr. Renhao Lu for successfully defending his dissertation! Being the first Ph.D. in the Lee lab, Renhao’s research on “Tissue-Engineered In Vitro Models for Studying Lymphatic Morphogenesis, Pathogenesis, and Drug Delivery” sets a remarkable precedent!
March 25, 2024:
Check out our collaborative work with Dr. Young-Kwon Hong from USC, published in Nature Neuroscience! In this study, Renhao demonstrated how Piezo1 controls fluid drainage using lymphatics-on-chip, offering a new idea to address excessive CSF buildup in the brain!
2023
October 11, 2023:
Dr. Lee is named a Young Innovator in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE) 2023. Congratulations!
October 2, 2023:
Check out our new paper in PNAS! “A 3D biomimetic model of lymphatics reveals cell-cell junction tightening and lymphedema via a cytokine-induced ROCK2/JAM-A complex”PDF
September 14, 2023:
Dr. Lee is the recipient of the James and Mary Tien Excellence in Teaching Award, the highest award for teaching in the College of Engineering at Cornell University. Congratulations!
June 23, 2023:
Lab awarded NIH R01 grant from NCI! We appreciate the Cancer Tissue Engineering Collaborative (Cancer TEC) program for this funding. We will study lymphatic function in breast cancer to improve breast cancer immunotherapy in collaboration with Dr. Monica Guzman (WCM).
April 19, 2023:
Lab awarded NIH R21 grant from NIAID! We will study immune cell-vascular interactions using high-throughput nanoIEA assays in collaboration with Dr. Deok-Ho Kim (JHU).
Harry (Yansong) Peng received the IFER fellowship 2023-2025. Congratulations Harry!
January 4, 2023:
2022
December 15, 2022:
Paul’s study on glymphatics-on-chip is now published at Advanced Biology as a Front Cover Article!
October 13, 2022:
Dr. Lee gives an invited talk at the 10th US-Korea Joint Workshop at BMES in San Antonio!
October 5, 2022:
September 8, 2022:
Asim and Rena join the lab as undergraduate researchers. Welcome!
July 1, 2022:
Lab awarded NIH R01 grant from NHLBI! We will study lymphatic cell-cell adhesion to understand lymphatic disease like lymphedema.
April 4, 2022:
Samantha has been awarded NSF GRFP 2022! Samantha will study the roles of lymphatics in autoimmune disease. Congratulations, Samantha!
March 23, 2022:
Congratulations to Ph.D. candidate Renhao Lu for passing his A-exam. Great job, Renhao!
March 14, 2022:
Ania and Gigi’s insightful perspectives article, titled Lymphatic tissue and organ engineering for in vitro modeling and in vivo regeneration was published in Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine. This will be printed in “Angiogenesis, 2nd edition” (editors: Patricia D’Amore, and Diane Bielenberg) as one of the book chapters. Congratulations!
February 20, 2022:
Dr. Lee gives a seminar at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences on February 22, 2022.
February 1, 2022:
Lab awarded NIH R21 grant from NCI! We will study tumor vascular interactions in pancreatic cancer metastasis using tumor-on-chip models and patient-derived xenografts in collaboration with Dr. Manuel Hidalgo.
2021
December 2, 2021:
Isabelle awarded the Alan D. Mathios Research & Service Grant. Congratulations!!
November 6, 2021:
Ania’s insightful commentary on lymphatic co-culture model and cancer is now published. Congratulations, Ania!
October 28, 2021:
Harry and Samantha join the lab as Ph.D. students. Welcome!
October 5, 2021:
Dr. Lee gives a seminar at Johns Hopkins BME on October 11, 2021.
October 4, 2021:
Our new paper is out as a cover article in Microcirculation! A bioengineered lymphatic vessel model for studying lymphatic endothelial cell-cell junction and barrier function by Henderson et al!
This study received “Microcirculatory Society Award for Excellence in Lymphatic Research”.
September 30, 2021:
Cort’s proposal titled “Control of Cytotoxic T cell Mechanosensing by Piezo 1” has been selected to receive a Fall 2021 research award from Cornell Engineering Learning Initiative (ELI). Congratulations, Cort!
September 23, 2021:
Lab awarded NIH R21 grant from NIAID! We look forward to creating the initial and collecting lymphatic vessels and exploring immune cell interactions with those lymphatics in normal and inflammation conditions in collaboration with Dr. Deborah Fowell.
June 8, 2021:
Meera’s proposal titled “Modeling Breast Cancer Metastasis with Bioengineered Tumor-on-Chip Platform” has been selected to receive a Summer 2021 research award from Cornell Engineering Learning Initiative (ELI). Congratulations, Meera!
June 1, 2021:
Cort awarded the Sigma Xi Award. Congratulations, Cort!
April 25, 2021:
Dr. Lee gives invited talk at
(1) Lymphatic Forum 2021 (virtual_June 2, 2021)
(2) NAVBO symposium: Human Organoid Systems to Study Vascular Toxicity (virtual_June, 15, 2021)
April 13, 2021:
Two review papers are out. Congratulations to authors!
Bioengineered in vitro models of leukocyte-vascular interactions, Biochem. Soc. Trans. (2021)
Engineering three-dimensional vascularized cardiac tissues, Tissue Eng. Part B: Rev. (2021), in collaboration with Dr. Deok-Ho Kim.
April 10, 2021:
Paul received Ruthanna Wood Davis Award for Academic Achievement! Congratulations, Paul!
April 10, 2021:
Cort awarded American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Undergraduate Scholar Award, 2021-2022. Congratulations!
March 23, 2021:
Aria awarded NSF GRF! Aria will study protein transport mechanisms in glymphatic system using organ-chip models. Congratulations, Aria!
March 8, 2021:
Lab awarded Adam Rachel Broder Fund for Cancer Research! We look forward to our collaboration with Drs. Deborah Fowell and Manuel Hidalgo.
March 2, 2021:
Lab awarded ‘Multi-Investigator Seed Grant’ from the Office of Academic Integration at Cornell University! We look forward to our collaboration with Dr. Manuel Hidalgo.
Feb 11, 2021:
Cornell BME student spotlight on Aria Henderson!
Jan 1, 2021:
Cort’s proposal titled “Combined lymphatic vessel normalization and checkpoint blockade tumor therapy” has been selected to receive a Spring 2021 research award from Cornell Engineering Learning Initiative (ELI). Congratulations, Cort!
2020
November 20, 2020:
Paul awarded the Alan D. Mathios Research & Service Grant. Paul will compare gene expression profiles and water-conducting capacity of astrocytes early-on and later-on in brain development using an organ-chip system. Congratulations, Paul!
November 19, 2020:
Our recent study was published in Scientific Reports. The study describes an in vitro model of anastomosis of a perfusable vessel to a 3D solid tumor via stromal cell-derived paracrine factors.
October 5, 2020:
Tae Joon’s paper is accepted by Biofabrication (*IF 8.213). It describes a rapid multilayer microfabrication method to model organ-specific metastasis in breast cancer. Osteoblasts dictate bone metastasis, which needs further investigation. Congratulations, Tae Joon!
August 30, 2020:
Renhao’s review article on glaucoma tissue engineering has been published at Micromachines (Basel) as a ‘Feature Article (Editor’s Choice)’. Congratulations Renhao!
August 29, 2020:
Isabelle Ilan and Andrew Kim join the lab as undergraduate students. Welcome Everyone!
July 17, 2020:
Aria receives the Mong Cornell Neurotech Fellowship 2020-2021. Congratulations, Aria!
April 15, 2020:
Hyoann accepted an offer from Georgia Tech/Emory BME for her Ph.D. study. Keng-Jung accepted an offer from Carnegie Mellon University BME for his Ph.D. study. Congratulations, ALL!
March 6, 2020:
Keng-Jung has been selected as one of the featured speakers at the Biomedical Engineering and Instrumentation Summit in Boston (BEIS-Boston). He will present his promising work on cancer-on-a-chip in July 2020. Congratulations! See the featured speakers.
January 29, 2020:
Check out our recent review article and book chapter on lymphatic and blood vessel-on-a-chip systems and their applications.
January 13, 2020:
Hyoann’s proposal entitled “Human small intestine on-a-chip” has been selected to receive a Spring 2020 research award from Cornell Engineering Learning Initiative (ELI). Congratulations, Hyoann! Here is Hyoann’s research story at the ELI blog.
2019
December 5, 2019:
Dr. Lee gives an invited talk at the ASCB/EMBO 2019 meeting in Washington DC (Dec. 7-11, 2019).
October 22, 2019:
Dr. Lee gives an invited talk at the Cornell Center for Immunology on October 29, 2019. Immunology Over Lunch.
September 5, 2019:
Dr. Lee has been appointed to the title of “Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences” by the Office of the Provost at Cornell University. Dr. Lee will hold this title until he is no longer an assistant professor. This title is an honor based on his achievements, promise and innovative future interdisciplinary research. – about the Meinig Family Investigator
August 28, 2019:
Our pancreatic cancer on-chip study has been published at Science Advances. Check out Harvard Wyss research highlight: “Exposing how pancreatic cancer does its dirty work”.
July 25, 2019:
Dr. Lee gives an invited talk at the Cornell BMES on August 23, 2019. BMES Symposium Flyer.
July 1, 2019:
Lee lab officially opens its door! Dr. Lee joins the faculty at Cornell as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering. Faculty Announcement Cornell Engineering