Jeffrey E. Lee, Ph.D.
Professor, Canada Research Chair in Structural Virology
Jeff completed his undergraduate studies at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1995-1999). He pursued his graduate studies with Dr. P. Lynne Howell at the University of Toronto/Hospital for Sick Children (1999-2005) and followed that up with a post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Erica Ollmann Saphire at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA (2005-2010). Jeff returned back to the University of Toronto to start his own lab in July 2010. His career has been highlighted with a number of fellowships and awards, such as a Canada Research Chair in Structural Virology, 2015 Merck Irving S Sigal Award (American Society of Microbiology), CIHR New Investigator Award, 2010 Spicer Young Investigator Award (Stanford University/Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource), 2009 NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award, 2006 Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal, and CIHR Postdoctoral and Doctoral Fellowships.
Karen Siu, Ph.D.
Senior Research Associate
Karen obtained her BSc from Simon Fraser University and completed her PhD in Dr. P. Lynne Howell’s lab at the University of Toronto, Dept. of Biochemistry. She has received multiple national fellowships—NSERC Post-Graduate Scholarship, CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarship and CIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship. Karen manages the crystallization facility and oversees general operations in the lab.
Wenguang He
Postdoctoral Fellow
Wen completed his BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry at the University of Manitoba. He joined the Lee Lab in Sept 2016 and graduated with a PhD from the Dept of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto (co-supervised by Dr. Michael Ohh).
Lingke Liu
Postdoctoral Fellow
Heba Saad
Postdoctoral Fellow
Emily Forster, M.Sc.
Ph.D. Student
Emily completed her BSc in Molecular Biology at Johns Hopkins University and her MSc in Biology at New York University. She joined the Lee lab in August of 2021 as a PhD student.
Mara Carausu
M.Sc. Student
Mara completed her BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry at the University of British Columbia. She is the recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and joined the Lee lab in September of 2026 for graduate research.
Xinyin Wang
M.Sc. Student
Xinyin completed her BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry at the University of British Columbia. She is the recipient of the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and joined the Lee lab in September of 2023 for graduate research.
Manus Yu
M.Sc. Student- graduated
Manus completed his BSc (Hons) in Immunology at the University of Western Ontario. He completed his MSc graduate research in 2026.
Sun Min Choi
Work study student
Saanvi Mazumdar
Project student
James Zhang
Casual co-op student
Angela Zhou
Project student
Alumni
Postdoctoral Fellows/Research Associate: Peter Quashie (Associate Professor, University of Ghana, Deputy Director, WACCBIP), George Bikopolous (Staff at York University), Azmiri Sultana (Staff at UToronto), Vitor Hugo Balasco Serrão (Research Specialist at University of California Santa Cruz); Tyler Vance, Naasson Mbambi, Zengwei Ku (Assistant Professor, Henan University of Science and Technology)
Graduate Students: Halil Aydin, PhD (Assistant Prof. at New York University), Matthew Taylor, JD, MSc (Associate at Sotos LLP), Jonathan Cook, PhD, MD (Resident physician at University of Toronto), Farshad Azimi, PhD (postdoctoral fellow, University of Toronto), Trevor Dean, MSc (University of Illinois PhD student), Bart Grijmans, MSc (PhD studen, Utrecht University), Juliette Lee, MSc (law student University of Toronto), Manus Yu
Undergraduate Students: Nikki Cavandi, Sarah Cao (MD at WesternU), Briana Smrke (Ontario Government), Lewis Liu, Sofiya Lazarova (UBC graduate school), Kate Twohig (UBC MSc Public Health), Haroon Muhammed, Syed Hasan, Markus Korpella (UHelsinki), Amanda Kelsall (MD at UOttawa), Hazel Soto-Montoya (technician at UToronto), Brandon Ho (UToronto graduate school), Hanna Lem (technician at Stanford University), Dina Al-Khooly, David Dai (UToronto MSc Public Health), Alena Zelinka (UToronto graduate school), Klarizza Panaligan (Sanofi-Pasteur), Aynaz Khodayari, Annoj Thavalingam (UToronto graduate school), Minjie Mai, Vivian Zhou, Cody Cherepuschak, Helen Tran, Murtaza Khawaja, Chanhee Park (UToronto Dentistry), Ying Quan, Elaina Corrado, Rami Ajaj, Cassie Zhang, Randy Yoo, Adree Khondker, Young June Kim, Diana Gawol; David Saag; Rachel Chiang, Vivian Liu, Gino Lee, Aaron Chan, Abenan Thayparan, Dustin Yang, Alice Liu, Blanche Cheng, Mara Carausu, Yutong Liu, Rick Hu, Jasmine Chow, Ran Feng
Technician: Patrick Yip (retired), Sagar Lahiri (Manager, Spectral Medical), Mehrnaz Amani (technician at SGC, UToronto)