Dr. Lee is an adjunct Professor of the School of Life Sciences and Department of Psychiatry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a Visiting Professor in the Division of Life Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He also serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director of SinoMab and an Advisor for the Technology Transfer Center of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Dr. Lee has over 30 years of experience in academic and biopharmaceutical arena. Before joining the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Lee taught biochemistry at the Chinese University of Hong Kong for 10 years and performed herbal medicine research. He has strong leadership and scientific skills in drug discovery and development (especially translational research), including strategic, conceptual and analytical thinking. He had created and led several multi-disciplinary drug discovery and development project teams at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Abbott Laboratories, Bayer Corporation and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals to discover and validate novel molecule targets, generate appropriate animal models, identify drug candidates for diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), and deliver drug candidates to proof of principal studies in the clinic for Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, depression and anxiety. He has extensive experience in working at the interface of R&D, developing global drug discovery strategy, forming collaborative joint ventures, evaluating licensing opportunities and facilitating strategic alignment of the tasks and goals of the discovery and development functions. For instance, the dedicated translational research of Dr. Lee’s group has enabled the expansion of the indication of Seroquel (anti-psychotic drug which was discovered and developed in house at AstraZeneca) from schizophrenia to bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder, benefiting millions of psychiatric patients.
He has been actively engaged in several public private partnership activities. He was an active member of the FNIH Biomarker Consortium Neuroscience Steering Committee, the European Innovative Medicine Initiative (IMI) on NEWMEDS and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Neuroforum, which focus on biomarkers and translational R&D for CNS diseases.
Prior to returning to Hong Kong, he held senior positions at AstraZeneca as Executive Director of Translational Science in the areas of CNS and Pain Innovative Medicines and Global Product Director in CNS therapy area, Associate Director of Institute for Dementia Research at Bayer, and Senior Group Leader of Exploratory Neurodegeneration at Abbott. In November 2016, he rejoined the Chinese University of Hong Kong as the Director of Knowledge Transfer at the Office of Research and Knowledge Transfer Services. He received his Ph. D. from Cambridge University and did his post-doctoral training at John Hopkins University. He has published over 110 peer-reviewed research reports in neuropharmacology, neurochemistry and translational research.
