James Lee, MD

Clinical Fellow
Medicine
Email: 

I have a research focus in adoptive T cell therapy using chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) and checkpoint inhibitors. My current interest is on the design of next generation of CARs and combination checkpoint immunotherapy in the setting of a tolerant/suppressive tumor microenvironment in solid malignancies.

Translating recent advancements in cellular cancer immunotherapy to metastatic solid tumors has been especially challenging, and this is highlighted by the lack clinical response outside of the CD19 ideal antigen as target. Current forms of therapy is likely insufficient to overcome the naturally tolerogenic microenvironment evolved to protect against autoimmunity. Using the liver as a model organ of immune tolerance, I intend to study the mechanism of tumor escape in the setting of checkpoint inhibition and adoptive T cell therapy.

My hope is to see cancer immunotherapeutics become its own mainstream anatomic-site agnostic cancer subspecialty.

Professional Experience:

Clinical Instructor, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY. July 2012-July 2013

Clinical Instructor, University of California, San Francisco, CA. July 2013-July 2014

Education:

Medical School: Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT. September 2003-May 2009

Research Fellowship: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY. 2006-2009.

Residency: Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY. July 2009-June 2012

Publications: 

Collateral Damage: Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Induced With Checkpoint Inhibitors.

Diabetes

Stamatouli AM, Quandt Z, Perdigoto AL, Clark PL, Kluger H, Weiss SA, Gettinger S, Sznol M, Young A, Rushakoff R, Lee J, Bluestone JA, Anderson M, Herold KC

Partially exhausted tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes predict response to combination immunotherapy.

JCI insight

Loo K, Tsai KK, Mahuron K, Liu J, Pauli ML, Sandoval PM, Nosrati A, Lee J, Chen L, Hwang J, Levine LS, Krummel MF, Algazi AP, Pampaloni M, Alvarado MD, Rosenblum MD, Daud AI

Shifting the Evolving CAR T Cell Platform into Higher Gear.

Cancer cell

Holohan DR, Lee JC, Bluestone JA

Tumor-targeted T cells modified to secrete IL-12 eradicate systemic tumors without need for prior conditioning

Blood.

Lee JC*, Pegram HJ*, Hayman EG, Imperato GH, Tedder TF, Sadelain M, Brentjens RJ

Sensitive in vivo imaging of T cells using a membrane-bound Gaussia princeps luciferase.

Nature medicine

Santos EB, Yeh R, Lee J, Nikhamin Y, Punzalan B, Punzalan B, La Perle K, Larson SM, Sadelain M, Brentjens RJ

Retroviral transduction of murine primary T lymphocytes.

Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)

Lee J, Sadelain M, Brentjens R

Inventing New CARs: Analysis of Chimeric Antigen Receptor Gene-Targeted T cells Modified to Overcome Regulatory T cell Suppression in the Tumor Microenvironment. Yale University MD Thesis. 2009

Inventing New CARs: Analysis of Chimeric Antigen Receptor Gene-Targeted T cells Modified to Overcome Regulatory T cell Suppression in the Tumor Microenvironment. Yale University MD Thesis. 2009.