Charles Lee, Ph.D., DSc, FACMG, FRSC, has been recruited to the UConn School of Medicine from The Jackson Laboratory, where he served as the inaugural director of The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine and helped build one of the nation\u2019s leading programs in translational genomics and human disease research. Lee\u2019s appointment is effective June 26, 2026.<\/p>\n
Lee brings to UConn and his new role as Associate Dean of Translational Genomics and Professor of Genetics and Genome Science in the School of Medicine, his rare combination of discovery science, clinical genomics expertise, institutional leadership, and public-health impact as a pioneering human geneticist, clinical cytogeneticist, and academic leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cJoining UConn School of Medicine feels like a natural next chapter for me,\u201d shares Lee. \u201cOver the years, I have seen firsthand the strength of this institution and its people, and I\u2019m excited to contribute to a shared vision of scientific discovery, innovation in genomic medicine, and meaningful impact on human health.”<\/p>\n
After completing his doctoral education at the University of Alberta, Lee pursued postdoctoral training at the University of Cambridge and clinical cytogenetics training at Harvard Medical School. Early in his faculty tenure at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital, Lee published the landmark 2004\u00a0Nature Genetics<\/em>\u00a0paper, \u201cDetection of large-scale variation in the human genome,\u201d which revealed that copy number variation is widespread across humans. That discovery helped launch structural genomic variation as a major field in human genetics and reshaped how scientists and clinicians understand the architecture of the human genome and its role in disease.<\/p>\n In 2013, Lee helped build a major genomics research enterprise and guided its scientific strategy, faculty growth, and institutional partnerships. Under his leadership, JAX Genomic Medicine became a vital part of Connecticut\u2019s biomedical ecosystem, with research strengths in human genome structure, immunology, cancer genomics, and the microbiome.<\/p>\n Lee has also been a leading voice on the ethical, legal, and social implications of bringing genomics into medicine, emphasizing the responsible translation of genomic discovery into clinical care, public health, and society.\u00a0During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lee was appointed to the Reopen Connecticut Advisory Group by Governor Ned Lamont, and he led JAX Genomic Medicine into partnerships with the Connecticut Department of Public Health, UConn Health, Connecticut Children\u2019s, Hartford HealthCare, and other local hospitals to expand SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing for Connecticut residents.<\/p>\n Alongside his institutional leadership at JAX, Lee maintained a highly influential research program focused on structural genomic variation in human biology, evolution, and disease. His team and collaborators have developed genomic maps that are now used to interpret hundreds of thousands of array-based genetic diagnostic tests worldwide each year. He has co-led major international scientific efforts, and advanced the study of difficult-to-sequence genome regions, including recent work on complete sequencing of human Y chromosomes (https:\/\/www.the-scientist.com\/closing-the-gaps-in-the-human-genome-why-y-was-the-final-hurdle-71316<\/a>; https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41586-023-06425-6<\/a>; \u00a0https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2023\/08\/25\/world\/y-chromosome-fully-sequenced-scn\/index.html<\/a>). His career includes more than 190 publications with over 100,000 citations, service as president of the Human Genome Organization from 2017 to 2023, election to the Royal Society of Canada, fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST), the Ho-Am Prize in Medicine, and an honorary Doctor of Science from the University of Alberta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joining from The Jackson Laboratory Dr. Lee will start his next career chapter at UConn. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":246633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076,1868,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1873],"class_list":["post-246631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-meds","category-university-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-03 13:15:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246631"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246637,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246631\/revisions\/246637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/246633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246631"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=246631"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=246631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}