Affiliation: University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Dr. Sue Chin Lee has been trained in lysophospholipid signaling as a graduate student at the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences. As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, she continued her research in lysophospholipid signaling with a specific focus on the roles of autotaxin (ATX) and the bioactive lipid lysophospholipid acid (LPA) in radiation injury and cancer. Her lab found that the upregulation of the ATX-LPA regulatory pathway is as an intrinsic defense mechanism that protects cells from genotoxic stress (i.e., induced by radiation or chemotherapy) by promoting DNA repair and cell survival. They hope that by identifying novel molecular targets that are key to initiating DNA repair or tissue regeneration could pave way for the development of drug candidates that mitigate radiation injury.