Background:

Research:

1) Smoking-induced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
Smoking-induced COPD is one of the most important leading causes for mortality in Korea. Moreover, the worldwide mortality by COPD has been continuously increasing during past decades irrespective of the campaign against smoking. WHO expected COPD would be the 4th cause of mortality in 2010. As moral hazard of smokers was considered as a main cause of COPD, pathogenesis of COPD has not been intensively investigated. Recently, however, developed countries are investing their resources to reveal the pathogenesis of COPD for overcoming the increasing mortality by COPD, which has not been controlled solely by cessation of smoking. In my laboratory, we are trying to study pathogenesis of smoking-induced COPD, especially in relation to signaling pathways, and to find potential therapeutic targets for development of future therapy.

2) Hepatic reperfusion injury
Hepatic reperfusion injury occurs under various clinical circumstances including partial hepatic resection and liver transplantation. We are searching for mechanisms of this injury including expression of key inflammatory molecules and the related signaling pathways. And we are trying to find potential therapeutic targets for hepatic reperfusion injury with the data acquired in studies on pathogenesis of hepatic reperfusion injury.

3) Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)
Chronic myelogenous leukemia is successfully treated with imatinib, a recently developed antileukemic drug. However, CML often recurs after complete remission with the drug, and recurrence leads to death of patients. Even though several resistance mechanisms are suggested, few approved drug can be used for recurred cases of CML. So, we are trying to find new modalities for treating recurrence of CML in the context of searching for unrevealed resistance mechanisms.

Recent publications:

1. Lee JH, Lee DS, Kim EK, Choe KH, Oh YM, Shim TS, Kim SE, Lee YS, Lee SD. Simvastatin Inhibits Cigarette Smoking-induced Emphysema and Pulmonary Hypertension in Rat Lungs. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2005 Jul 7
2. Lee DY, Cho HI, Kang YH, Yun SS, Park SY, Lee YS, Kim Y, Lee DS. The role of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for monitoring hematologic malignancies with BCR/ABL or ETO/AML1 rearrangement: a comparative study with FISH and G-banding on 919 consecutive specimens of hematologic malignancies. Cancer Genet Cytogenet. 2004 Jul 1;152(1):1-7.
3. Lee DS, Lee YS, Yun YS, Kim YR, Jeong SS, Lee YK, She CJ, Yoon SS, Shin HR, Kim Y, Cho HI. A study on the incidence of ABL gene deletion on derivative chromosome 9 in chronic myelogenous leukemia by interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization and its association with disease progression. Genes Chromosomes Cancer. 2003 Jul;37(3):291-9.
4. Lee YS, Lee KH, Chung MH. Expression of hOGG1 protein during differentiation of HL-60 cells. Exp Mol Med. 2003 Apr 30;35(2):98-105.
5. Lee DS, Lee YS, Kim YR, Han KS, Park KU, She CJ, Kim EC, Park SY, Cho HI. RARA fluorescence in situ hybridization overcomes the drawback of PML/RARA fluorescence in situ hybridization in follow-up of acute promyelocytic leukemia. Cancer Genet Cytogenet. 2002 Dec;139(2):104-8.