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Lab Members


Michael LeeMichael J. Lee, PhD

Associate Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Systems Biology


Office: AS5.1047
Phone: 774-455-3870
michael.lee-at-umassmed.edu

Bio: Mike is a native of Seattle and a proud UW Husky alum. He obtained his PhD in Pharmacology from UNC at Chapel Hill in 2008 working with Henrik Dohlman, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT, working with Michael Yaffe. Mike joined the faculty at UMass Chan in 2014. He enjoys playing basketball, drinking great bourbon, and is an avid (but mediocre) skier. 

Scientific Interests: systems pharmacology; mechanisms of drug-induced lethality; precision medicine; breast cancer therapy; combinatorial drug responses; signaling network dynamics; non-canonical cell death; the DNA Damage Response.

Associate Professor - Department of Systems Biology
Associate Professor - Program in Molecular Medicine 
Affiliated Faculty - Department of Molecular, Cell and Cancer Biology 

Member - Center for Cancer Systems Biology (CCSB) at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

  • Gavin Birdsall

    Gavin Birdsall

    Graduate Student (GSBS, Systems, Computational, and Quantitative Biology)

    Gavin is from Southbury, CT. He attended the University of Connecticut, where he graduated with a degree in Physiology and Neurobiology, with a minor in Math. Prior to graduate school, he worked in the LoTurco Lab, where he studied tumor heterogeneity in a mouse model of supratentorial ependymoma, a rare glial tumor. He joined the lab in 2022 and is using functional genomic strategies to understand different ways in which dysregulated gene expression causes cell death. When he’s not in the lab, Gavin might be found gaming, playing the guitar or piano, tending to his many plants, or woodworking. In fact, he made most of his furniture himself!

  • Nick Harper

    Nick Harper

    Graduate Student (GSBS, IGP, NRSA/NCI F31 Fellow)

    Nick grew up in Wellesley, MA. He graduated from University of Vermont, where he studied Mathematics. After graduating, he worked in Kornelia Polyak’s lab at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, where he gained valuable experience as a bioinformatician studying breast cancer. Nick joined the Lee Lab in 2020 and is exploring an unexpected mechanism of lethality for a common class of anti-cancer drugs. In his spare time, Nick enjoys mountain biking, skiing, and hiking with his dog Birdie.

  • Kelly Ward

    Kelly Ward

    Graduate Student (GSBS)

    Kelly is from Reading, MA. She attended Northeastern University, where she studied Biochemistry and Data Science. While at Northeastern, she completed two internships at Dragonfly Therapeutics, where her studies were focused on immuno-oncology. For her graduate studies, Kelly is interested in exploring an under-appreciated feature of drug dose-dependency, and how it shapes mechanism of drug-induced lethality. Outside of the lab, Kelly loves baking, spending time with friends and family, and going to concerts (a 2019 Fleetwood Mac concert at the TD Garden stands out as her favorite!). Fun fact: Kelly was a dancer and has trained in ballet, tap, and jazz since she was three!