ABOUT OUR LAB
Plant natural products have potential value for a variety of nutritional and pharmaceutical applications, so the bioactive compounds in a wide range of plants have been actively identified and studied. The growing availability of plant genome sequences supports the discovery of the genes and proteins in the biosynthetic pathways of valuable natural products, which are generally present at low concentrations in plants. The research goal of Lee's laboratory is to understand and engineer the production of natural products in marine and terrestrial plants, thus increasing the nutritional and pharmaceutical values of plants for human health. The approaches for engineering the metabolic pathways of plant natural products will provide insights into the potential applications for studying natural products in marine organisms.
PROF. SOON GOO LEE
The main goal of my research is to understand the molecular basis of how enzymes, regulatory proteins, and key signaling molecules function in a variety of metabolic pathways and regulatory networks using biochemical research tools, especially protein X-ray crystallography.
EDUCATION
Washington University in St. Louis
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Dissertation Title
- The Phosphobase Methylation Pathway in Plants,Nematodes, & the Protozoan Plasmodium falciparum
Sogang University
Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Summa Cum Laude
AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS
ASBMB Early Career Faculty Travel Award (2019)
The Charles L. Cahill Research Award (2019)
ETEAL Pedagogy Initiatives Award (2019)
Plant Metabolic Engineering Gordon Research Seminar Travel Grant (2017)
Sogang Honors Scholarship (1999, 2000, 2004, 2005), Summa Cum Laude (2006) Wold Travel Award and Protein Science Young Investigator Travel Grant (2014)
Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Biomedical Fellows Award (2013)
Travel Grant for US-Korea Conference (UKC) on Science, Technology and Entrepreneurship (2011)
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Grad Student Travel Award (2011)
The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation Travel Award for Banff Conference on Plant Metabolism (2010)
POSTECH BK21 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (2004)