Hui Sun Lee

Structural Systems Biology/Pharmacology

My research works have centered on Structural Glycobiology and Molecular Recognition in Biological Systems by harnessing computational and theoretical approaches.
As one of the fundamental classes of macromolecules that comprise living systems (along with nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids), glycans come in a diversity of sequences and structures by linking individual sugar units in a multitude of ways. Glycans play major metabolic, structural, and physical roles in biological systems by altering the structure and dynamics of glycosylated proteins and/or recognizing specific proteins. Despite the essential biological roles, relatively little attention has been paid to glycans, and structural glycoscience remains a relatively understudied field. Furthermore, experimental difficulties is making it tricky to investigate glycans and their biological functions.
One of the most remarkable features of proteins is their ability of specific, reversible binding to other molecules (i.e., ligands). These molecular recognitions are associated with a vast array of biological functions in living systems. Accurate characterization of protein-ligand interactions is crucial to understand how proteins perform their cellular functions and to design specific molecules to modulate the functions. Moreover, rather than acting in isolation, they usually carry out their biological processes through orchestration of complex networks of transient interactions. Therefore, proteome-scale approaches are imperatively needed to elucidate the fundamentals of complex biological systems and to develop more efficient therapeutic agents.
The ultimate goal of my research is to gain a “systems-level view of glycans’ biological roles and proteins’ molecular recognitions in pathophysiology”. In addition to the fundamental biology study, I am developing “high-performance computational toolsets that integrate big biomolecular structure data with systems biology data for next-generation structure-based drug design”. I am also carrying out “drug discovery campaigns in collaboration with wet-lab groups”.
>> My research interests