The Rhee Lab studies the intracellular biochemistry of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the leading bacterial cause of deaths worldwide, and its response to perturbation by host relevant stresses and antimycobacterial compounds.
Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of deaths due to a single infectious disease yet also the leading cause of deaths due a curable disease. This apparent paradox is explained in part by the ability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of TB, to resist the otherwise sterilizing activities of host immunity and conventional antibiotics, and ability to spread from one person to the next by air, making it second only to measles in contagiousness. My lab seeks to understand the biochemical mechanisms Mtb uses to outwit, outplay and outlast host immunity and antibiotics. To do so, we pioneered the use of mass spectrometry-based metabolomic technologies to study the intrabacterial biochemistryof Mtb within and between hosts and the intrabacterial pharmacology of current and emerging TB drugs.
Biography
Dr. Rhee received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Irvine, followed by clinical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Weill Cornell, where he has remained on the faculty since 2005, directs 3 institutional physician-scientist training programs and co-leads an NIH funded Tuberculosis Research Advancement Center and the Cornell Center for Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Education.
Distinctions:
Burroughs Welcome Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences
Harrington Discovery Institute Scholar-Innovator Award
Member, American Society for Clinical Investigation; Member, Assocation of American Physicians
