Ken Lee

Born and raised in Yangon, Myanmar, Ken Lee (Kaung Khant Soe) graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 2024 with a major in chemistry in the biochemistry concentration and a minor in bioinformatics. His research at Washington University, in the Jackrel lab, focused on protein analysis, particularly studying Matrin-3's role in neurodegenerative diseases like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal dementia (FTD). At Washington University, he developed a passion for understanding the biochemistry of protein folding and the implications of unique protein characters to the recruitment of molecular assemblies. As an M.D./Ph.D. candidate at Yale, Ken hopes to study the changes to molecular organization during disease in hopes of identifying new pathways for therapies.