The Lee Laboratory uses emerging biotechnologies to discover and design new approaches to cardiovascular diseases. A central theme of our laboratory is that merging bioengineering and molecular biology approaches can yield novel approaches. Thus, we work at this interface using a broad variety of techniques in genomics, imaging, nanotechnology, physiology, cell biology, and molecular biology. Our approach is to understand problems and design solutions in the laboratory and then demonstrate the effectiveness of these solutions in vivo. Ongoing projects in the laboratory include studies of cardiac regeneration, diabetic vascular disease, wound healing, heart failure, and cardiac hypertrophy.

Biosketch

Richard T. Lee is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and lecturer in Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Lee is a 1979 graduate of Harvard College in Biochemical Sciences and received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College in 1983.  Dr. Lee completed his residency in 1986 and cardiology fellowship in 1989, both at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He performed post-doctoral training at MIT in Bioengineering.

Dr. Lee is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in cardiovascular disease and is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. He is Leader of the Cardiovascular Program of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.  He is a member of the Editorial Boards of the journals Circulation Research, Journal of Clinical Investigation, and Circulation.

Dr. Lee has published over 180 peer-reviewed articles based on his research, which combines approaches in biotechnology and molecular biology to discover new avenues to manage and treat heart disease. In addition, Dr. Lee is an active clinician; he regularly treats patients as a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, teaches physical diagnosis to Harvard Medical students, and volunteers his time for medical care to the homeless at a Boston-area shelter.