Dr. Tzumin Lee

Biography

Tzumin Lee received his M.D. from National Yang-Ming Medical College in Taipei, Taiwan, and completed his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Cellular & Molecular Biology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Following his doctoral studies, he undertook postdoctoral research in the Department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. As a Research Professor at the Life Sciences Institute and an Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Lee has made significant contributions to the field of developmental biology. His research focuses on the developmental mechanisms of the nervous system, utilizing Drosophila genetics to uncover gene functions crucial for lineage-guided neural development. Lee has developed advanced techniques like the mosaic analysis with a repressible cell marker (MARCM) and twin-spot MARCM, which facilitate the study of neuronal lineages. His work includes reconstructing the development of the fruit fly brain and profiling transcriptomes of neural stem cells, revealing the temporal factors that govern distinct cell fates based on birth order. At the University of Michigan, he explores the genomic mechanisms influencing the development of diverse brain structures across model organisms.

Research Interests