Research

Lee Laboratory at the College of Pharmacy, Ewha Womans University, is dedicated to developing innovative nanomedicine platforms for anticancer and anti-inflammatory therapy. Intractable inflammatory diseases and cancers are driven by multifactorial pathologies involving microbiome dysbiosis, immune dysregulation, aberrant cell death, and intracellular resistance. To address these challenges, we design nanomedicine-based strategies that precisely modulate the microbiome, immune responses, and disease-associated cell death while overcoming pathological tissue microenvironments and intracellular resistance mechanisms. Our translational biomedical approach integrates pharmaceutics, nanotechnology, biomaterials, and drug delivery.

Our research focuses on two main directions:

1) Microbiome-immune-barrier-targeted Intelligent Nanomedicines for Inflammatory Diseases: First, we develop multifunctional nanomedicine platforms to treat local and systemic inflammatory diseases. By synergistically reshaping dysbiotic microbiota, regulating immune imbalance, and enhancing tissue barrier integrity, our platforms modulate the microbiome–immune–barrier axis. Furthermore, we harness the intrinsic cytoprotective properties of our nanomaterials to protect healthy epithelial and immune cells from disease-induced oxidative stress and drug-associated toxicity.

2) Precision Nanomedicines for Next-generation Immuno-oncology: Second, we engineer precision nanomedicine platforms that induce cancer cell death, including doxorubicin prodrug nanoparticles and ROS-targeted nanomedicines. These platforms are designed to target hostile tumor microenvironments and overcome intracellular resistance mechanisms. Importantly, our platforms can selectively induce tumor cell death while protecting normal cells and vital immune cells from severe anticancer drug-associated toxicity. Building on this therapeutic selectivity, our platforms provide a foundation for next-generation cancer immunotherapy by eliciting durable antitumor immune responses to ultimately control cancer recurrence and metastasis.