09/19/2023
Global Center for Pathogen & Human Health Research Announces Inaugural Young Investigator Award Recipients
The Cleveland Clinic Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Global Center for Pathogen & Human Health Research named Juyeun Lee, PhD, DVM, and Yee Peng Phoon, PhD, the inaugural recipients of the 2023 Global Center for Pathogen & Human Health Research Young Investigator Award. The opportunity supports late-stage postdoctoral researchers, faculty research associates and project scientists, providing them with financial and mentorship support to catalyze their research careers as independent investigators.
The Global Center for Pathogen & Human Health Research (GPHHR) is the centerpiece of the Cleveland Innovation District, a collaborative effort between JobsOhio, the State of Ohio, Cleveland Clinic and other Northeast Ohio partners. Cleveland Clinic's GPHHR is a cornerstone of the Cleveland Innovation District and represents the organization's largest investment into research to date.
Dr. Lee currently works as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Justin Lathia, PhD, where she studies sex differences in the development of and response to treatment for glioblastoma. Her most recent paper reports that critical immune cells, called T-cells, exhaust sooner in males than in females. The award will support further study of the factors underlying sex differences, and to help develop sex-based treatments.
Dr. Phoon is a research associate in the lab of Jos Melenhorst, PhD. Dr. Phoon's research focuses on cancer biology and cancer immunotherapy, a treatment that stimulates the body's own immune cells to fight off cancer. The award will support research into how exhausted T-cells lose function in melanoma patients. Dr. Phoon also aims to engineer these cells to overcome treatment resistance in challenging melanoma cases.
Developing the healthcare workforce of the future is a key goal of the Cleveland Innovation District. Cleveland Clinic has created a variety of new programs in support of this goal, including the Young Investigator Award and a Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. Nearly 1,000 new jobs have already been created in support of the Cleveland Innovation District at Cleveland Clinic.
