Jerry Lee

Professor and Director, Precision Health Network
Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative

As Professor and Director of the Precision Health Network, Dr. Jerry Lee advances university-wide precision health programs through Arizona State University’s Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative. His work integrates biomarkers, multi-omics, artificial intelligence, and longitudinal clinical data to deepen understanding of the transition from health to disease. Key partnerships include the National Biomarker Development Alliance, the Department of War, and private-sector collaborators.

Before arriving at ASU, Dr. Lee served as Chief Science and Innovation Officer at the Ellison Medical Institute and held faculty appointments at the University of Southern California. Prior to that, he spent twelve years as Health Sciences Director in the Office of the Director at the National Cancer Institute, where he developed programs integrating emerging technologies, transdisciplinary science, research infrastructure, and data standards. In 2016, he was detailed to the Office of the Vice President as Deputy Director for Cancer Research and Technology for the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force. A few key efforts he helped initiate and continue to lead include the Department of War John P. Murtha Cancer Center Research program’s longitudinal cohorts, Applied Proteogenomics Organizational Learning and Outcomes (APOLLO) and Project for Military Exposures and Toxin History Evaluation in US Service members (PROMETHEUS) networks, international collaborations to share molecular characterization datasets, the Blood Profiling Atlas in Cancer (BloodPAC) consortium, as well as co-chairing an interagency group focused on cancer data and technology policy issues.

Dr. Lee’s ongoing biomedical research involves elucidating the interplay between biophysical and biochemical factors that drive age-related diseases and has co-authored over eighty papers, five book chapters, and one book. As a health services researcher, he collaborates with clinicians, epidemiologists, and computational scientists to create molecular-driven adaptive learning healthcare system pilots that systematically generate and aggregate molecular, phenotype, and clinical data elements throughout an entire cancer patient’s journey from initial diagnosis through survivorship. These datasets capture time-dependent dynamics of cancer in patients as they are treated and as they re-engage as healthy citizens, with subsequent analysis aimed at informing ways to enhance technical and cost efficiencies as well as overall quality of care for cancer patients.

Dr. Lee served as a member of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Research Advisory Council, the National Academies Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy’s Innovation Policy Forum, and the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute’s Board of Trustees. He continues to serve as senior advisor to director of the Department of War’s John P. Murtha Cancer Center, board of directors of Lumea, Inc., and scientific advisory boards of AtlasXomics, Inc., miRoncol, Inc., and Center for Computational Science Research, Inc. Dr. Lee earned his B.S. degree in biomedical engineering and PhD in chemical and biomolecular engineering from Johns Hopkins University.