Kwan Young Lee

Senior Research Scientist (PI: Dr. Nien-Pei Tsai)

Additional Campus Affiliations

Senior Research Scientist, Molecular and Integrative Physiology

Recent Publications

Pan, M., Acharya, A., Lee, K. Y., Rhodes, J. S., & Tsai, N. P. (2026). Hyperfunction of PSD-95 leads to hyperexcitability and cognitive abnormalities in MEF2C haploinsufficiency. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 123(41), Article e2606341123. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2606341123

Wang, S., Yook, Y., Lizarazo, S., Lee, K. Y., Van Bortle, K., Rhodes, J. S., Christian-Hinman, C. A., & Tsai, N. P. (2026). ATF4 Modulates Group 1 mGluR-Dependent molecular signaling, hippocampal plasticity and behavior. Molecular Psychiatry. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-026-03919-3

Wang, Y., Zhu, J., Lizarazo, S., Lee, K. Y., Wong, O., Azim, S., Yook, Y., Kumar, V., & Tsai, N. P. (2026). E3 Ubiquitin Ligase Nedd4-2 Exacerbates Seizure-Induced Mitochondrial Defects in an Alzheimer's Disease Mouse Model. Journal of Neurochemistry, 170(4), Article e70440. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnc.70440

Kumar, V., Lee, K. Y., Acharya, A., Babik, M. S., Christian-Hinman, C. A., Rhodes, J. S., & Tsai, N. P. (2024). mGluR7 allosteric modulator AMN082 corrects protein synthesis and pathological phenotypes in FXS. EMBO Molecular Medicine, 16(3), 506-522. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44321-024-00038-w

Mehta, K., Yentsch, H., Lee, J., Yook, Y., Lee, K. Y., Gao, T. T., Tsai, N. P., & Zhang, K. (2024). Phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate mediates Arc capsid secretion through the multivesicular body pathway. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 121(35), Article e2322422121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2322422121

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In the news

  • University of Illinois researchers have established the protein p53 as critical for regulating sociability, repetitive behavior, and hippocampus-related learning and memory in mice, illuminating the relationship between the protein-coding gene TP53 and neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders...
  • Researchers report that infantile spasms, a rare but serious seizure disorder in babies, appear to be the result of a molecular pathway gone awry. In their study of a mouse model of the disorder, the researchers discovered that genetic mutations associated with the disease impair a pathway that is...
  • Research scientist Kwan Young Lee, molecular and integrative physiology professor Nien-Pei Tsai, and their colleagues discovered that an overabundance of the tumor suppressor protein p53 in neurons can lead to impaired regulation of neuronal excitability in a mouse model of Fragile X syndrome.