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Joo Sang Lee

Sungkyunkwan University · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

About the Lab

Professor Joo Sang Lee's research lab focuses on translational cancer genomics and systems biology, with a central emphasis on identifying and validating synthetic lethal interactions for targeted cancer therapy. The lab integrates multi-omics data, particularly from TCGA, to discover clinically relevant genetic vulnerabilities across diverse tumor types. A key direction involves developing data-driven frameworks—such as ISLE—to prioritize synthetic lethal interactions with high translational potential, bridging the gap between preclinical screening and clinical application. The lab also explores innovative diagnostic techniques, including modified cytological methods for intraoperative pathology, and investigates fundamental biological mechanisms, such as genome dynamics in gene regulation.

synthetic lethalitycancer genomicstranslational bioinformaticsprecision oncologysingle-cell genomics

Research Overview

Papers
346
Total Citations
5,439
Papers (5y)
220
Primary Field
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Research Output Trend

Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.

Publications per year (5y)
220total
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
Citations per year (5y)
652total
20222023202420252026

Selected Papers

15
1
Article|300 citations·2018
Urea Cycle Dysregulation Generates Clinically Relevant Genomic and Biochemical Signatures
Joo Sang Lee, Lital N. Adler, Hiren Karathia, Narin Nard Carmel, Shiran Rabinovich, Noam Auslander, Rom Keshet, Noa Stettner, Alon Silberman, Lilach Agemy, Daniel Helbling, Raya Eilam
SJR Q1CellOA
Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
2
Article|243 citations·2019
A Platform of Synthetic Lethal Gene Interaction Networks Reveals that the GNAQ Uveal Melanoma Oncogene Controls the Hippo Pathway through FAK
Xiaodong Feng, Nadia Arang, Damiano Cosimo Rigiracciolo, Joo Sang Lee, Huwate Yeerna, Zhiyong Wang, Simone Lubrano, Ayush Kishore, Jonathan A. Pachter, Gabriele M. König, Marcello Maggiolini, Evi Kostenis
SJR Q1Cancer CellOA
Cell BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
3
Article|235 citations·2019
Multiomics Prediction of Response Rates to Therapies to Inhibit Programmed Cell Death 1 and Programmed Cell Death 1 Ligand 1
Joo Sang Lee, Eytan Ruppin
SJR Q1JAMA OncologyOA

That we know of, this is the first systematic evaluation of the different variables associated with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy response across different tumor types. The findings suggest that the 3 key variables can explain most of the observed cross-cancer response variability, but their relative explanatory roles may vary in specific cancer types.

OncologyMedicine
4
Article|159 citations·2021
Synthetic lethality-mediated precision oncology via the tumor transcriptome
Joo Sang Lee, Nishanth Ulhas Nair, Gal Dinstag, Lesley M. Chapman, Youngmin Chung, Kun Wang, Sanju Sinha, Hongui Cha, Dasol Kim, Alexander Schperberg, Ajay Srinivasan, Vladimir Lazar
SJR Q1CellOA
Cancer ResearchBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
5
Article|143 citations·2018
Harnessing synthetic lethality to predict the response to cancer treatment
Joo Sang Lee, Avinash Das, Livnat Jerby‐Arnon, Rand Arafeh, Noam Auslander, Matthew Davidson, Lynn McGarry, Daniel James, Arnaud Amzallag, Seung Gu Park, Kuoyuan Cheng, Welles Robinson
SJR Q1Nature CommunicationsOA

While synthetic lethality (SL) holds promise in developing effective cancer therapies, SL candidates found via experimental screens often have limited translational value. Here we present a data-driven approach, ISLE (identification of clinically relevant synthetic lethality), that mines TCGA cohort to identify the most likely clinically relevant SL interactions (cSLi) from a given candidate set of lab-screened SLi. We first validate ISLE via a benchmark of large-scale drug response screens and

Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
6
Article|32 citations·2024
A systematic analysis of the landscape of synthetic lethality-driven precision oncology
Alejandro A. Schäffer, Youngmin Chung, Ashwin V. Kammula, Eytan Ruppin, Joo Sang Lee
SJR Q1MedOA

BACKGROUND: Synthetic lethality (SL) denotes a genetic interaction between two genes whose co-inactivation is detrimental to cells. Because more than 25 years have passed since SL was proposed as a promising way to selectively target cancer vulnerabilities, it is timely to comprehensively assess its impact so far and discuss its future. METHODS: We systematically analyzed the literature and clinical trial data from the PubMed and Trialtrove databases to portray the preclinical and clinical lands

Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
7
Preprint|5 citations·2025
Kinetic organization of the genome revealed by ultra-resolution, multiscale live imaging
Joo Sang Lee, Liangfu Chen, Simon Gaudin, Kavvya Gupta, Andrew J. Spakowitz, Alistair N. Boettiger
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)OA

Abstract In the last decade, sequencing methods like Hi-C have made it clear the genome is intricately folded, and that this organization contributes significantly to the control of gene expression and thence cell fate and behavior. Single-cell DNA tracing microscopy and polymer physics-based simulations of genome folding have proposed these population-scale patterns arise from motor- driven, heterogeneous movement, rather than stable 3D genomic architecture, implying that motion, rather than st

EcologyEnvironmental Science
8
Article|5 citations·2020
Preparation of frozen cell-block sections amenableto diagnostic immunocytochemistry: a technical report on cryo-embedded cell-block method
Joo Sang Lee, Suk Jin Choi, Lucia Kim, In Park, Jee Young Han, Joon Kim
SJR Q3Polish Journal of PathologyOA

Modified agarose cell-block (CB) technique can be effectively used to have the CB embedded in the OCT compound for the preparation of frozen CB (F-CB) sections in the same way as in the preparation of frozen sections from cryoembedded fresh tissue samples for the intraoperative consultation. In this report, we demonstrate the amenability of F-CB sections to the diagnostic immunocytochemistry. The pelleted cytologic material was at first compactly embedded in ultralow-gelling temperature agarose

SurgeryMedicine
9
Article|4 citations·1994
Almost periodic homeomorphisms and 𝑝-adic transformation groups on compact 3-manifolds
Joo Sang Lee
SJR Q1Proceedings of the American Mathematical SocietyOA

In this paper we prove that regularly almost periodic is equivalent to nearly periodic for homeomorphisms on compact metric spaces and give an example to show that the above is false without the compactness assumption. We also prove that the following statement is equivalent to the Hilbert-Smith conjecture on compact 3-manifolds <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="upper M cubed"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAto

Mathematical PhysicsMathematics
10
Book Chapter|3 citations·2007
Dietary Fatty Acids and Eicosanoids
Joo Sang Lee, Daniel Hwang
Food science and technology
Nutrition and DieteticsNursing
11
Preprint|3 citations·2018
Integrated computational and experimental identification of p53, KRAS and VHL mutant selection associated with CRISPR-Cas9 editing
Sanju Sinha, Karina Barbosa, Kuoyuan Cheng, Mark D.M. Leiserson, David M. Wilson, Bríd M. Ryan, Ze’ev A. Ronai, Joo Sang Lee, Aniruddha J. Deshpande, Eytan Ruppin
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)OA

Abstract Recent studies have reported that CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing induces a p53 -dependent DNA damage response in primary cells, which may select for cells with oncogenic p53 mutations 11,12 . It is unclear whether these CRISPR-induced changes are applicable to different cell types, and whether CRISPR gene editing may select for other oncogenic mutations. Addressing these questions, we analyzed genome-wide CRISPR and RNAi screens to systematically chart the mutation selection potential of CRIS

Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
12
Article|2 citations·2018
Abstract A69: Mutagenicity of urea cycle dysregulation and its implications for cancer immunotherapy
Joo Sang Lee, Narin Nard Carmel, Hiren Karathia, Noam Auslander, Shiran Rabinovich, Rom Keshet, Noa Stettner, Alon Silberman, Lilach Agemy, Daniel Helbling, Raya Eilam, Qin Sun
SJR Q1Cancer Immunology Research

Abstract Immune checkpoint therapy leads to durable clinical responses in many cancer patients, but fails in others. To improve the clinical response to immunotherapy, it is highly important to identify predictive biomarkers. While checkpoint genes’ expression levels, tumor neo-antigen load and microsatellite instability (MSI) have been associated with enhanced response to checkpoint immunotherapies, they yet provide only a modest predictive signal and hence there is a need to identify additiona

Cancer ResearchBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
13
Article|2 citations·2025
Can the tumor neural niche be targeted to re-program cancer?
Erica K. Sloan, Joo Sang Lee
SJR Q1PLoS BiologyOA

Interactions between the peripheral nervous system and solid tumors influence cancer progression and treatment response. Defining the 3D tumor neural niche using spatial omics and AI technologies will identify new opportunities for targeted therapies to stop cancer progression.

Psychiatry and Mental healthMedicine
14
Article|2 citations·2026
Herpes simplex virus 1 harboring poly(T) DNA sequences as a key ligand for AIM2 inflammasome activation and host defense
SuHyeon Oh, Jueun Oh, Kyeongchan Im, Tae Hyoung Kim, Jihye Lee, Kihye Shin, Nabukenya Mariam, Cheong Seok, Jaewoo Park, Gyeongju Yu, Hayeon Kim, s.h. kim
SJR Q1Nature CommunicationsOA

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infection remains a major global health challenge, yet the mechanisms underlying strain-specific innate immune responses are poorly understood. Here, we show that distinct HSV-1 strains differentially activate the absent in melanoma 2 (AIM2) inflammasome. The HF strain robustly induces AIM2-dependent inflammasome activation, whereas the F and KOS strains elicit minimal responses despite comparable infection efficiency. We demonstrate that this difference is dr

Molecular BiologyBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
15
Article|1 citations·2013
A Cross-Layer Cooperative Architecture to Support Transmission Efficiency in Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks
Joo Sang Lee, Beongku An
Sensor Letters
Computer Networks and CommunicationsComputer Science

Research Areas

Molecular BiologyGeneticsOncologyCancer ResearchImmunologyHepatology

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