About Dr. Moses Lee

Dr. Moses Lee moved to Hope College in the summer of 2005. He serves as Dean for the Natural and Applied Sciences Division and Professor of Chemistry at Hope College, located in Holland, Michigan. After receiving his B.S. in biochemistry in 1983 and a Ph.D. in organic synthesis in 1986 from the University of Guelph, Canada, Professor Lee spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow in Professor J. W. Lown’s laboratory at the University of Alberta, where he began his studies on small molecule-DNA interactions. From there, he moved to SynPhar Laboratories, Inc. (a subsidiary of Taiho Pharmaceutical Company of Japan) where he worked as a medicinal chemist on projects aimed at developing anti-HIV, anticancer, and anti-ulcer compounds. In 1989 he joined the chemistry faculty at Furman University, SC. He was the Henry and Ellen Townes Assistant Professor of Chemistry from 1991 to 1993, and in 1994 he received the Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar award. Professor Lee was appointed to the Rose J. Forgione Chair at Furman University in 1998.

A bioorganic and medicinal chemist, he actively designs and develops novel analogs of distamycin, CC-1065, and combretastatin A4 that have potential application as anticancer and gene control agents. His laboratory also investigates the fundamental thermodynamic and kinetic properties by which these molecules interact at specific sequences of DNA within the minor groove. Funding for Professor Lee’s research program has come from federal agencies (NSF and NIH-NCI, NIH-BRIN), private foundations (Research Corporation, Petroleum Research Fund, Dreyfus Foundation, Beckman Foundation, CUR), and corporations (Glaxosmithkline, Pfizer, Milliken, Spirogen Ltd., Taiho Pharmaceutical Co, Enzacta).

Professor Lee has published more than a hundred scientific papers in various fields including anticancer drug design, biochemistry, molecular pharmacology of anticancer and anti-infective (parasites, bacteria, fungi, viruses) drugs, as well as chemical education. His research group has given more than a hundred presentations at regional and national professional meetings, and he has been invited to speak at universities, symposia and professional workshops for more than fifty times. He has supervised 10 post-doctoral research fellows, 32 M.S. students, 175 undergraduates, and he has also co-supervised 4 Ph.D. students. Professor Lee has served on the advisory committee of Research Corporation from 1996-2000, and is currently a member of the advisory board of ACS Petroleum Research Fund, the Murdock Charitable Trust, and the advisory team for the Chemistry Department of Western Washington University. He has also served on a number of NSF proposal review panels and was a member of the NSF-REU (research experience for undergraduate) leadership group, which is charged to improve the quality and culture of undergraduate research in the United States. Professor Lee serves as a consultant for Milliken Chemical Company (South Carolina), Taiho Pharmaceutical Company (Japan), and Spirogen Ltd. (UK).