Dr. Lee embarked on her journey at King’s College London in 2016, joining the Adult Neurogenesis and Mental Health Laboratory under Dr. Sandrine Thuret's guidance. In 2020, she earned her PhD, delving into the impact of apolipoprotein E (APOE) polymorphism on hippocampal neurogenesis in late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. With a focus on directed differentiation of human induced pluripotent stem cells, she mastered bioinformatics tools like bulk RNA sequencing for molecular insights. Engaging in pioneering research funded by the Galen and Hilary Weston Foundation, she explored predicting cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s onset using an in vitro parabiosis model of hippocampal neurogenesis and single cell transcriptomics. 

Transitioning to the Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre in 2024, Dr. Lee embarks on a novel venture, dissecting the genetic landscape of 17,000+ NIHR BioResource Mental Health programme participants. Her expertise spans Nanopore long-read sequencing and genome-wide association studies, poised to illuminate the genetics of depression, anxiety (https://gladstudy.org.uk), eating disorders (https://edgiuk.org) and rare diseases. 

Research Interests  

• Eating disorders 
• Mood disorders 
• Cognition 
• Neurogenesis 
• Genetics systems biology 

Research Groups

• Translational neuropsychiatric genomics group 
• NIHR BRC BioResource Laboratory 
• King’s Genomics 

Teaching

• MSc for Neuroscience Module: Neural stem cells and Nervous system repair (iPSCs: Focus Alzheimer's disease)  

Key Publications

• Lee H, Price J, Srivastava DP, Thuret S. In vitro characterization on the role of APOE polymorphism in human hippocampal neurogenesis. Hippocampus. 2023;33(4):322-346. doi:10.1002/hipo.23502 
• Maruszak A, Silajdžić E, Lee H, et al. Predicting progression to Alzheimer's disease with human hippocampal progenitors exposed to serum. Brain. 2023;146(5):2045-2058. doi:10.1093/brain/awac472 
• Lee H, Metz A, McDiarmid A, et al. The effects of genotype on inflammatory response in hippocampal progenitor cells: A computational approach. Brain Behav Immun Health. 2021;15:100286. doi:10.1016/j.bbih.2021.100286