Background |
Siu Sylvia Lee is an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics. She received a B.A. in Biochemistry from Rice University in 1995 and a Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in 1999. She received her postdoctoral training at the Department of Molecular Biology of Massachusetts General Hospital & the
Department of Genetics of Harvard Medical School, where she was awarded
a Damon Runyon Cancer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship.
She joined
the faculty at Cornell in 2003. She
is in the graduate fields of Genetics & Development, Biochemistry, Molecular, & Cell Biology, and Nutrition. Her research is supported by the National Institute of Aging and the Ellison Medical Foundation. She teaches BioBM/BioGD/Tox437: Regulation of Cell Proliferation, Senescence, and Death. |
Research Description |
Although aging is a universal process, little is known about its molecular underpinnings. Our laboratory is interested in elucidating the conserved molecular pathways that modulate longevity. Emerging research has revealed longevity determinants capable of regulating aging in diverse organisms, from yeast, to invertebrates, to mammals, highlighting the high degree of conservation in the molecular mechanisms that govern longevity. Our research focuses on using the powerful genetic model round worm Caenorhabditis elegans to identify and functionally characterized the evolutionarily conserved genetic determinants important for longevity. As a long term goal, we hope to test whether our findings in C. elegans also hold true in other diverse organisms, including fruit flies and mice. A better understanding of the mechanistic basis of aging will have important implications for the prevention and treatment of many crippling age-dependent diseases, such as cancer, late onset diabetes, and neurodegeneration. more |
Selected Publications |
J. Li, A. Ebata, Y. Dong, G. Rizki, T. Iwata, S.S. Lee. 2008. C. elegans HCF-1 Functions in Longevity Maintenance as a DAF-16 Regulator. PLoS Biology, in press.
J. Li, M. Tewari, M. Vidal, and S. S. Lee. 2007. The 14-3-3 protein FTT-2 regulates DAF-16 in Caenorhabditis elegans. Dev. Biol. 301(1):82-91.
E.R. Troemel, S.W. Chu, V. Reinke, S. S. Lee, F.M. Ausubel, D.H. Kim. 2006. p38 MAPK Regulates Expression of Immune Response Genes and Contributes to Longevity in C. elegans. Plos Genet. 2(11):e183.
Lee, S. S. Whole genome RNAi screens for increased longevity: Important new insights but not the whole story. Exp Gerontol. 41(10):968-73.
Lee SS. Interfering with longevity. Sci Aging Knowledge Environ. 2005 Aug 31;2005(35):pe26.
Hamilton B, Dong Y, Shindo M, Liu W, Odell I, Ruvkun G, Lee SS. A systematic RNAi screen for longevity genes in C. elegans. 2005. Genes Dev. 19(13): 1544-55.
Lee, S. S. 2004. Come One, Come All. Sci. Aging Knowl. Environ., Vol. 2004, Issue 18, pp. pe18.
Click here to view Dr. Lee's PubMed listings.
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