Dr. Lee’s research interests include chemokine-mediated lung inflammation, and the role of chemokines in altering the lung microenvironment’s response to injury. One primary focus of the laboratory is the role of Duffy antigen chemokine binding protein as a model for examining in vivo consequences of erythrocyte membrane protein alterations during red cell storage. We are interested in how red cell transfusion can provide a secondary signal for the development of acute lung inflammation and injury in a murine model of endotoxemia. Another focus of the laboratory is the chemokine CX3CL1 and its cognate receptor CX3CR1 in the propagation and accumulation of divergent immune cell populations within the lungs following inflammatory stimuli such as chronic cigarette smoke exposure.
