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
Plant Metabolic Engineering Gordon Research Seminar Travel Grant (2017)
The Finn 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)
Sogang Honors Scholarship (1999, 2000, 2004, 2005)
PRESENTATIONS
American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Annual Plant Biology Meeting 2018, Oral, Montreal, Canada (2018)
XXXVII Midwest Enzyme Chemistry Conference, Oral, Chicago, IL (2017)
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) 2017 Annual Meeting
(ASBMB Spotlight Session - Plant Biochemistry and Metabolism), Oral, Chicago, IL (2017)
Plant Metabolic Engineering Gordon Research Seminar, Oral & Poster, Waterville Valley, NH (2017)
Plant Metabolic Engineering Gordon Research Conference, Poster, Waterville Valley, NH (2017)
American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) Annual Plant Biology Meeting 2017, Poster, Honolulu, HI (2017)
US-Korea Conference (UKC) on Science, Technology & Entrepreneurship, Oral, Washington, D.C. (2017)
XXXVI Midwest Enzyme Chemistry Conference, Poster, Chicago, IL (2016)
XVII Intl Congress on Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, Poster, Portland, OR (2016)
Invited Seminar at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Oral, Barcelona, Spain (2015)
29th Annual Symposium of the Protein Society, Poster, Barcelona, Spain (2015)
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center 16th Fall Symposium, Poster, St. Louis, MO (2014)
28th Annual Symposium of the Protein Society, Poster, San Diego, CA (2014)
27th Annual Symposium of the Protein Society, Poster, Boston, MA (2013)
UKC on Science, Technology, & Entrepreneurship, Oral, Los Angeles, CA (2012)
Invited Seminar at Research Institute for Basic Science, Oral, Seoul, South Korea (2012)
UKC on Science, Technology & Entrepreneurship, Poster, Park City, UT (2011)
ASBMB 2011 Annual Meeting, Poster, Washington, D.C. (2011)
Banff Conference on Plant Metabolism 2010, Oral, Banff, Canada (2010)
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center 11th Fall Symposium, Poster, St. Louis, MO (2009)
ASPB Annual Plant Biology Meeting 2009, Poster, Honolulu, HI (2009)
XXVIII Midwest Enzyme Chemistry Conference, Poster, Chicago, IL (2008)
Donald Danforth Plant Science Center 10th Annual Fall Symposium, Poster, St. Louis, MO (2008)
Plant Molecular Biology Gordon Research Conference, Poster, Holderness, NH (2008)
XXVII Midwest Enzyme Chemistry Conference, Poster, Chicago, IL (2007)