Tim Lee

Program: Developmental Regenerative and Stem Cell Biology

Current advisor: Rajendra S. Apte, MD, PhD

Undergraduate university: Vanderbilt University, 2015

Enrollment year: 2019

Research summary
Metabolic role of photoreceptor degeneration and survival mechanisms

Photoreceptors are essential for vision and uniquely sensitive to neurodegeneration, thus it is crucial to investigate and understand the underlying metabolism that make photoreceptors vulnerable.

Graduate publications
Poria D, Kolesnikov AV, Lee TJ, Salom D, Palczewski K, Kefalov VJ. 2023 Investigating the role of rhodopsin F45L mutation in mouse rod photoreceptor signaling and survival. eNeuro, 10(3):ENEURO.0330-22.2023. PMCID: PMC9997694

Sasaki Y, Kakita H, Kubota S, Sene A, Lee TJ, Ban N, Dong Z, Lin JB, Boye SL, DiAntonio A, Boye SE, Apte RS, Milbrandt J. 2020 SARM1 depletion rescues NMNAT1-dependent photoreceptor cell death and retinal degeneration. Elife, 9():e62027. PMCID: PMC7591247

Dong Z, Santeford A, Ban N, Lee TJ, Smith C, Ornitz DM, Apte RS. 2019 FGF2-induced STAT3 activation regulates pathologic neovascularization. Exp Eye Res, 187():107775. PMCID: PMC6759401

Ban N, Lee TJ, Sene A, Choudhary M, Lekwuwa M, Dong Z, Santeford A, Lin JB, Malek G, Ory DS, Apte RS. 2018 Impaired monocyte cholesterol clearance initiates age-related retinal degeneration and vision loss. JCI Insight, 3(17):e120824. PMCID: PMC6171801

Ban N, Lee TJ, Sene A, Dong Z, Santeford A, Lin JB, Ory DS, Apte RS. 2018 Disrupted cholesterol metabolism promotes age-related photoreceptor neurodegeneration. J Lipid Res, 59(8):1414-23. PMCID: PMC6071770