About
About me.
Hi there! My name is Juliana J. Lee, an immunology enthusiast :) What makes a cell, a cell? How are T cells developed? B cells? Macrophages? As a part of the Immunological Genome Project (ImmGen) community, I am on a mission to profile epigenomics and transcriptomics of various immune cell types.
Education.
University of Oxford, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine Oxford, UK
- MSc by Research, Clinical Medicine 2018-2021
- Dissertation: A CRISPR-Cas9 screen for hepatocyte receptors for malaria parasite invasion
- Advisor: Professor Alexander (Sandy) Douglas
University of Toronto, Faculty of Arts and Science Toronto, ON, Canada
- Honours Bachelor of Science (with high distinction) 2014-2018
- Majors: Immunology and Biochemistry
- Dissertation: Effect of Type I and Type II interferons on GITR ligand expression in inflammatory antigen presenting cells Undergraduate research advisor: Professor Tania Watts
Certificate.
Harvard Extension School Boston, MA, US
- Bioinformatics Graduate Certificate 2021-2022
- Courses: Epigenetics (BIOSE30; grade A), Bioinformatics (BIOTE104; grade A-), Biostatistics (STATS E-102; grade A-), Artificial Intelligence (CSCI E-80; grade B)
Academic journey.
2020-present
Benoist/Mathis Lab, Department of Immunology, Harvard Medical School, USA
Project 1:
- Mapping genome-wide association of histone post-translational modifications (H3K4me1, H3K4me3, H3K27me3, H3K36me3, H3K27ac and H3.3) and chromatin-associated proteins (CTCF) in immune cells by using Cleavage Under Targets & Release Using Nuclease (CUT&RUN) as an Immunological Genome (ImmGen) consortium project
- Spearheaded a collaborative work with EpiCypher, an epigenetics company that launched CUT&RUN, to combat cell population heterogeneity by optimizing their standard CUT&RUN protocol. Success in CUT&RUN optimization and data analysis pipeline were demonstrated in a submitted manuscript
- Orchestrated data collection from eight ImmGen-participating labs to map chromosome structures across 120 immune cell types
Project 2:
- Management of ULI RNAseq samples, and communal lab reagents
- Collaborated with Broad Institute to facilitate 1) generation of ULI RNAseq data produced by SMART- Seq2 sequencing kits in batch-mode and 2) distribution of data to sample owners.
- Worked on more than 2,500 ULI RNAseq samples from six labs from Harvard Medical School, one lab from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and one lab from University of California San Diego to help produce high quality data, which are used in two publications, six manuscripts in progress and one grant proposal.
- Organized and ordered common laboratory materials, resulting in lab members being able to conduct experiments on time with all reagents.
2019-2020
Douglas Group, Jenner Institute, University of Oxford, UK
Thesis:
- A CRISPR-Cas9 screen for hepatocyte receptors for malaria parasite invasion
- Studied liver stage of malaria by performing high-throughput CRISPR-Cas9 screens to uncover new hepatocyte surface receptors involved in sporozoite invasion, resulting in 1) setting a standard CRISPR-Cas9 screen protocol in studying malaria for general lab use, 2) identification of hepatocyte receptors that play a role in sporozoite invasion and 3) a manuscript in progress.
2017-2018
Watts Lab, Department of Immunology, University of Toronto, Canada
Project 1:
- Effect of Type I and Type II IFNs on GITR ligand expression in moAPCs
- Investigated causal transcription factor binding sites for GITR ligand expression in response to type I and II IFNs in RAW264.7, a macrophage-like mouse cell line, using Gaussia-Cypridina dual luciferase reporter assays.
Project 2:
- Investigation of rs4761847 SNP in Traf1 using CRISPR-Cas9 to investigate its causal relationship with rheumatoid arthritis.
- Designed sgRNA candidates and two repair templates to introduce rs4761847 SNP (A to G) in Traf1 in THP-1 cell-line using CRISPR-Cas9
Summer 2016
Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholar, Tailor Lab, National Institute of Immunology, India
Project: Interaction between IRF8 and other transcription factors in CD8+ dendritic cell development.
- Generated lentivirus expressing a plasmid cloned with Irf8-targeting sgRNA and Cas9 from HEK293T. Transduced dendritic cells cultured from Balb/c mice with this lentivirus which resulted in a generation of Irf8^-/-^ cell line for future common lab use.
Publication.
Baysoy A, Seddu K, Salloum T, Dawson C, Lee J, [11 authors], Benoist C. (2022) The interweaved signatures of common-gamma-chain cytokines across immunologic lineages. (Submitted to Nature Immunology; under revision)
Lee J, Reddy RS, Douglas S. (2022) CRISPR-Cas9 screen for identifying essential hepatocyte receptors in sporozoite invasion [manuscript in preparation]
Award.
Graduate prize; 2021
- Awarded yearly to twelve students by Governing Body at Trinity College, University of Oxford
2020 U of T COVID-19 student engagement award; 2020
- Awarded grant for COVID19 Recovery project for the summer of 2020
The Provost W.T. Delworth Graduation Scholarship + secondary merit award; 2018
- Awarded to the graduating class of Trinity College, University of Toronto based on their student debt and grade point average.
Immunology Summer Student Research Program; 2017
- Awarded to undergraduate summer research interns to conduct laboratory research project at a lab from the Department of Immunology, University of Toronto from May to August.
- Successful internship resulted in project continuation from September 2017 to April 2018 as a part of IMM450, a full-year research course.
Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarship; 2016
- Awarded to 15 students every year to conduct a research project as an intern at a lab in a commonwealth country for three months
Dean’s List Scholar (2016 – 2018)
- Yearly awarded for receiving cGPA of higher than 3.50 (top 20%)
Chemistry Connections Challenge, winning entry; 2017 Trinity College Admission Scholarships; 2014
- Awarded to 90 incoming first-year students
University of Toronto President’s Entrance Scholarship; 2014
- Awarded to incoming first-year students with a final admission grade of 95% and above
Public Engagement
COVID19 Recovery Project – wake up to positive news; 2020-2021 Founder and Team Leader To bring positive, heartwarming news and lessen negative impact the COVID19 pandemic had on everyone around the world, www.covid19recovery.net website was created (total of 55,000+ visitors and 200 visits/day).
- Led a group of 15 aspiring scientists of six ethnicities to update website with positive news articles, pictures, and interviews with people of various occupations from professor to social worker.
- Managed social media accounts such as Instagram and Facebook to bring news about website updates and guidelines on how to stay safe during the pandemic. Service was provided in three languages: English, French and Mandarin.
- Received COVID-19 Student Engagement Award ($3000) from the University of Toronto (link)
- Project success was featured on 11Alive, University of Toronto News , and Toronto CityNews news articles.
KSEAUK Bio-Medical Symposium; Nov 2019 Invited presenter Presented research work on how CRISPR-Cas9 helps to understand human-parasite relationship
Jenner Institute Student Symposium; Oct 2019 Invited presenter Highlighted and shared research discoveries to other students, research assistants and group leaders of the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford
Trinity College MCR Gaudy; May 2019 Invited presenter Invited to showcase my research as a representative of the Trinity College Middle Common Room (MCR) community
Trinity College MCR Committee 2019-2020 Secretary
- Managed more than 200 MCR and SCR members, and successfully organized college-wide events such networking with alumni and other Oxford college students
- Increased the number of diversity-central events by two-fold
- Organized committee meetings and produced weekly newsletters with updates on college activity.
Toronto Life Sciences 2016 – 2017 Staff member Organized seminars for 200 undergraduate students in preparation for their course examinations
Mount Sinai Hospital; 2015-2016 Volunteer Unit 1) Ben and Hilda Katz Acute Care for Elders (ACE) unit Sept 2015 – Nov 2016
- Prepared meals, helped mobility and provided entertainment to elderly patients for 100+ hours
- Occasionally contributed as a Korean interpreter for Korean patients
Unit 2) Pathology and Laboratory Medicine May 2015 – Aug 2015
- Organized patients’ blood, stool, and urine samples to different testing stations for 40+ hours
Smart Abacus Academy; 2015 Class instructor Organized course curriculum and taught French, Math, Science, Korean and English to 30 grade 4, 5 and 6 students