Kwan Young Lee

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

Additional Campus Affiliations

Senior Research Scientist, Molecular and Integrative Physiology

Recent Publications

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

Yook, Y., Lee, K. Y., Kim, E., Lizarazo, S., Yu, X., & Tsai, N. P. (2024). Hyperfunction of post-synaptic density protein 95 promotes seizure response in early-stage aβ pathology. EMBO Reports, 25(3), 1233-1255. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44319-024-00090-0

Lee, K. Y., Wang, H., Yook, Y., Rhodes, J. S., Christian-Hinman, C. A., & Tsai, N. P. (2023). Tumor suppressor p53 modulates activity-dependent synapse strengthening, autism-like behavior and hippocampus-dependent learning. Molecular Psychiatry, 28(9), 3782-3794. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-023-02268-9

View all publications on Illinois Experts

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.