College of Health and Human Services

Physical Therapy

The area of Dr. Lee’s research interest is metabolic adaptation in skeletal muscle and other vital organs in the body in response to exercise training with focus on carbohydrate and fat metabolism. His laboratory has recently observed that training improves insulin action in rats with heterogenetic backgrounds, and that this response is a heritable phenotype. Furthermore, his team in collaboration with Dr. Cicila, observed that an adaptation with swim training in key hepatic gluconeogenic enzyme activities in inbred rats (DA & COP) depends on a genetic background. In addition, in collaboration with Dr. Najjar, his team has observed an alteration in muscle glucose transport activity in transgenic mice with the inactivation or overexpression of hepatic CEACAM1. Recently, his research team in collaboration with Dr. McLoughlin, has investigated the effect of the overexpression of FOXO1 in skeletal muscle of mice on carbohydrate metabolism.