Associate Professor Jason Lee
Research Institution: Frazer Institute, The University of Queensland
OCRF priorities the researcher addresses: Early Detection, Treatment, Managing Recurrence
Their OCRF-funded research projects: Using circular RNAs for the early detection of ovarian cancer, G9a: A new marker to use to predict and treat aggressive ovarian cancer
I grew up with my parents encouraging me to do something that benefits society, that helps people. That’s why I got into research and it’s what drives me today.”
About Professor Lee’s research
Associate Professor Jason Lee is a leader in cancer epigenetics, running his lab at The University of Queensland’s Frazer Institute.
Epigenetics is the study of factors that can impact how a gene functions, without actually changing the DNA sequence. Having broadened the knowledge of epigenetics in breast cancer, he is now applying his talents to ovarian cancer.
Background
Associate Professor Lee was always curious about how things worked. “My dad would buy me a toy car and within ten minutes I’d pull it apart, trying to see what was inside and how things operate.”
Before starting his PhD in biomedical research in Sydney, he was also accepted into a law degree. Medical research is a difficult field, but Associate Professor Lee has no regrets about pursuing it. “Doing the hard work and hours never bothered me because it’s something I enjoy and it’s something that could really help.”
Initially, Associate Professor Lee researched childhood leukemia at Sydney’s Children’s Cancer Institute before undertaking a PhD in breast cancer research, which led to post-doctoral studies at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in the United States. His expertise in cancer epigenetics and genome analysis grew while working at Seoul National University’s Chromatin Dynamics Research Centre.
When Associate Professor Lee returned to Australia, he was in the lab with a gynaecological surgeon who introduced him to the unmet needs in ovarian cancer, educating him on tumour types that happened to be relevant to his cancer epigenetics work.
(Pictured above: Associate Professor Jason Lee and his team)
Career highlights
In 2010 Associate Professor Lee published new knowledge on hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen, in the environment surrounding a tumour. He found that hypoxia, alongside a particular type of protein (an enzyme) called G9a, can make cancer cells aggressive.
In 2012 he released further findings that an enzyme called EZH2 could make modifications to proteins which led to the degradation of those proteins. This research coined a new term ‘Methyl-Degron’.
In 2005 during his postdoctoral studies at Dana Farber, he collaborated with Nobel Prize recipient Professor William Kaelin who was researching proteins related to hypoxia and tumour development. At the time their project together wasn’t successful. Twelve years later Associate Professor Lee’s discovery of the role of the G9a protein in breast cancer tumour cell development unlocked the research he’d been working on. This new knowledge prompted Associate Professor Lee to consider developing a drug treatment for cancer patients, inspiring his 2019 OCRF-funded project.
Associate Professor Lee values the research community and the way it has led to exchanging ideas with people all over the world. Additionally, he enjoys teaching PhD students in his lab, continuing the progression of cancer research knowledge.
His lab includes three PhD students and three post-doctoral associates who are looking at aspects of epigenetics, such as identifying potential biomarkers or developing treatments based on an understanding of epigenetic factors. He also works with bioinformaticians and sequencing data specialists.
“Sequencing is normally perceived as sequencing the genome, but our research differs as epigenetics means ‘above the genetics’. So when sequencing is performed in this context, it’s not just about genetic mutations and structure, but about everything else that could impact the aggressiveness of cancer cells or impact treatment response in addition to changes that occur on the DNA. We have to have skills to cover analysis of that whole pipeline.”
Collaborative impact
For his OCRF-funded research, both in the early detection and treatment projects, Associate Professor Lee is collaborating with researchers across Australia to harness specialised expertise. To test new treatments in clinically relevant models he is working with Professor John Hooper from Mater Research Institute, who is also partially funded by the OCRF. Additionally, he is collaborating with Professor Clare Scott from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute whose expertise in clinical trials and clinically relevant models has led to their collaboration testing epigenetic inhibitors as new treatments, particularly to help patients for whom there are no effective therapeutic options available.
For every project like this, many more can’t get underway due to a lack of funding. Support research like this to help them move forward.
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