Natalie Lee (she/her) is a senior scientist and project manager at Johns Hopkins Applied Research Laboratory. She earned a PhD in neuroscience from University of Queensland, Australia and a MSc degree in biochemistry from Oxford University, UK. She has extensive experience in identifying novel molecular mechanisms related to neurological diseases and conditions such as multiple sclerosis and autism using cutting edge technologies. Before joining Johns Hopkins, Natalie completed her postdoctoral fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animal and Birds in Memphis, TN. Her research focused on identifying the role of epitranscriptomic modifications on the replication dynamics of influenza viruses. She also traveled extensively to low resource countries to establish pandemic preparedness standards and infectious disease control procedures in hospitals treating pediatric cancer patients.
Currently, Natalie acts as a lead scientist on global health security, working closely with the USDA, State Department, and DoD. She currently leads an effort to develop an integrated biosurveillance system that leverages machine learning capabilities to identify when a potential outbreak is occurring anywhere around the world followed by rapid assessment of the pathogen to determine its potential threat to human health. Natalie also travels extensively to support DoD efforts in field forward diagnostics and sample collection under clandestine scenarios.
Education History
- B.S., Biochemistry, Indiana University
- MSc, Biochemistry, University of Oxford
- Ph.D, Neuroscience, University of Queensland
Work Experience
Senior Professional Staff, JHU Applied Physics Laboratory
Publications
1) Lee NK, Stewart MA, Dymond JS, Lewis SL. An Implementation Strategy to Develop Sustainable Surveillance Activities Through Adoption of a Target Operating Model. Front Public Health. 2022;10:871114. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9019047.
2) Turner J, Gassant P, Gautier J, Joseph M, Gustinvil R, Deroncelay A, Dor V, Lee N, Homsi M, Webby R, Caniza M. Surveillance of Severe Viral Respiratory Infections among Children Presenting to Hôpital Saint Damien in Haiti. Open Forum Infectious Diseases. 2022 December; 9(2). Available from: https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofac492.1785.
3) O’Leary CJ, Nourse CC, Lee NK, White A, Langford M, Sempert K, Cole SJ, Cooper HM. Neogenin Recruitment of the WAVE Regulatory Complex to Ependymal and Radial Progenitor Adherens Junctions Prevents Hydrocephalus. Cell Rep. 2017 Jul 11;20(2):370-383. PubMed PMID: 28700939.
4) Bradford,D,, Basit,T,, Vautin,M,, Lee,N,, Silvera-Tawil,D,, Walker,J,, Nguyen,B,, Daly,C,, Harrap,K,, Lewry,K,, Ireland,D,, Hagstrom,A,, Dargan,S,, Nelson,A,, Hansen,D,. Digital technology to support the Work It Out Program. A report on the Indigenous Health Portal Project.. Queensland, Australia: CSIRO; 2017. DOI: 10.4225/08/5a7de1a66c078.
5) Lee NK, Fok KW, White A, Wilson NH, O’Leary CJ, Cox HL, Michael M, Yap AS, Cooper HM. Neogenin recruitment of the WAVE regulatory complex maintains adherens junction stability and tension. Nat Commun. 2016 Mar 31;7:11082. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4821876.