Research Fellow: Dr. Myoung-Hwa Lee

Post-doctoral Fellow

Dr. Myoung-Hwa Lee received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Studies Education at Chonbuk National University in Korea, following which she studied physical therapy at the Department of Physical Therapy at Korea University and became a licensed physical therapist. She subsequently obtained both her Master’s and Doctoral degrees in the field of exercise physiology from Korea University Graduate School. For her Master's degree, Dr. Lee studied the effects of exercise on denervated and atrophied muscles in rats following peripheral nerve injury for her master’s degree. She studied the effects of exercise on hippocampal proliferation of neural progenitor cells in the degenerative brain disorders for her PhD. During this time she developed research expertise in neural stem cells and neurogenesis in neurodegenerative disorders.

Dr. Lee joined the Nath lab as a postdoctoral fellow in March, 2006. She is now studying the effect of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-derived envelope glycoprotein 120 (gp120) on hippocampal neurogenesis”. She will continue to focus on genes that have been implicated in HIV, to examine their roles in different phases of adult neurogenesis. Through this research she hopes to shed light on the impact of HIV on neurogenesis, with hopes of developing novel therapeutic interventions that improve these patients’cognitive impairment.