Yuhan Lee

Assistant Professor

Harvard Medical School

As a biomaterials engineer and serial entrepreneur, Yuhan Lee’s key focus has been to identify the clinical and therapeutic unmet needs and to find solutions through biomaterials approach in collaboration with scientists and clinicians. In one of the studies, his team developed a technology to access gastrointestinal tract where selective access to its mucosa, especially in the small bowel, is challenging. After 7+ years of study, Dr. Lee and his team have developed an orally administered gut-coating formulation that provides a transient coating of the bowel. This can 1) provide a barrier against the gut environment that can emulate benefits of gastric bypass surgeries in minimally invasive and reversible manner for the treatment of type-2 diabetes and obesity, and 2) deliver small molecules and protein drugs in a protective manner directly into the gut providing a targeted sustained release of drugs for inflammatory bowel diseases (e.g., Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis). This work was published in Nature Materials which was covered in media worldwide. The technology has been licensed out to AltrixBio inc. for further clinical studies. Thus far, Dr. Lee’s research in biomedical, chemistry, molecular imaging, and nanotechnology was published 40+ peer-reviewed publications in high impact journals including Nature Materials, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Reviews Materials, and Advanced Materials that have been cited about 5000 times overall (h-index 31), and 20+ abstracts for international and domestic presentations. Ten+ published and pending patents/technology disclosures including four technologies successfully transferred to industries (bio-inspired hydrophobic glue for minimally invasive heart surgery, mussel-inspired wet tissue adhesive, ultra-strong carbon-nanotube fiber, and light-reflecting balloon catheter for atraumatic tissue defect repair). He is a co-founder of AltrixBio and One Fun. Dr. Lee’s expertise in synthesis and characterization of new materials, coupled with his desire to solve important medical problems through a highly collaborative research is critical for the translational research which is his goal to take innovative approaches to the market to reach people.