Research fellow

Sang Min Lee, PhD

Postdoc Research Fellow in Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Academic & Professional Experience

• Funded by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) under the Biomedical Global Talent Nurturing Program (2025-2027)

• Postdoctoral Research Fellow,  Integrative Biotechnology, Sungkyunkwan University (2025)

Education

• Ph.D. in Integrative Biotechnology, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea. (2025)

Thesis: Engineered M13 Bacteriophage as a Signal Amplification Probe for Bioaerosol Detection and Structural Optimization of Self-assembling GHK Derivatives in Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogel for Enhanced Tissue Regeneration (Advisor: Prof. Woo-Jae Chung)

• M.S. in Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea. (2018)

Thesis: pH-Sensitive Quercetin Derivative as a Potential Anti-Cancer Prodrug (Advisor: Prof. Woo-Jae Chung)

• B.S. in Genetic Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea. (2016)

Dr. Sang Min Lee is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She earned her Ph.D. in Integrative Biotechnology from Sungkyunkwan University (Korea) under the supervision of Professor Woo-Jae Chung. Dr. Lee’s academic journey began in the Department of Genetic Engineering, where she built a strong foundation in immunology, molecular biology, and cell biology. Her growing interest in mimicking biological systems to design functional biomaterials inspired her to pursue graduate research in biomaterial engineering. During her M.S. and Ph.D. studies, her work focused on developing innovative biomaterial-based platforms such as M13 bacteriophages, peptides, and hydrogels for biomedical applications. She applied orthogonal modification to M13 phages to create signal amplification probes for diagnostics (Biosens. Bioelectron. 2025; Sens. Actuators B Chem. 2023) and designed self-assembling peptide hydrogels for bioactive wound healing applications (Acta Biomater. 2023).

Currently, as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the NOVA Lab, her research focuses on engineering the physicochemical properties of biomaterials and investigating how these parameters influence in vivo transport and nano–bio interactions. By integrating nanoscience with optical strategies, her work aims to advance the understanding of how therapeutics behave in vivo, ultimately contributing to the design of more effective nanomedicine platforms.

1. Lee SH*, Lee SM*, Chang SH, Shin DS, Cho WW, Kwak EA, Lee SM, Chung WJ. Fc-binding M13 phage-enhanced electrochemical biosensors for influenza virus detection. Biosens Bioelectron. 2025;273:117156.

2. Lee S*, Lee SM*, Lee SH, Choi WK, Park SJ, Kim DY, Oh SW, Oh J, Cho JY, Lee J, Pham NC, Nam SY, Heo CY, Lee YS, Kwak EA, Chung WJ. In situ photo-crosslinkable hyaluronic acid-based hydrogel embedded with GHK peptide nanofibers for bioactive wound healing. Acta Biomater. 2023;172:159-174.

3. Lee SM*, Lee S*, Lee SH, Ahn GR, Lee BY, Kim SH, Song M, Chung WJ. Engineered M13 bacteriophage-enhanced colorimetric detection of allergenic fungi. Sens Actuators B Chem. 2023;393:134244.