Research
Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of deaths due to a single infectious disease yet also the leading cause of deaths due a curable disease. This apparent paradox is explained in part by the ability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of TB, to resist the otherwise sterilizing activities of host immunity and conventional antibiotics, and ability to spread from one person to the next by air, making it second only to measles in contagiousness. My lab seeks to understand the biochemical mechanisms Mtb uses to outwit, outplay and outlast host immunity and antibiotics. To do so, we pioneered the use of mass spectrometry-based metabolomic technologies to study the intrabacterial biochemistryof Mtb within and between hosts and the intrabacterial pharmacology of current and emerging TB drugs.
Current Projects:
- Mtb metabolism and systems biology
- Orphan enzyme discovery
- Transmission microbiology
- Intrabacterial pharmacology
- TB biomarker discovery.
Bio
Dr. Rhee received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Irvine, followed by clinical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Weill Cornell, where he has remained on the faculty since 2005, directs 3 institutional physician-scientist training programs and co-leads an NIH funded Tuberculosis Research Advancement Center and the Cornell Center for Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Education.
Distinctions:
- Burroughs Welcome Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences
- Harrington Discovery Institute Scholar-Innovator Award
- Member, American Society for Clinical Investigation; Member, Assocation of American Physicians
Selected Publications:
Metabolic principles of persistence and pathogenicity in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Ehrt S, Schnappinger D, Rhee KY.Nat Rev Microbiol. 2018 Aug;16(8):496-507. doi: 10.1038/s41579-018-0013-4.
Activity-based annotation: the emergence of systems biochemistry.
Rhee KY, Jansen RS, Grundner C.Trends Biochem Sci. 2022 Sep;47(9):785-794. doi: 10.1016/j.tibs.2022.03.017. Epub 2022 Apr 13.
Metabolic anticipation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Eoh H, Wang Z, Layre E, Rath P, Morris R, Branch Moody D, Rhee KY.Nat Microbiol. 2017 May 22;2:17084. doi: 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2017.84.
Aspartate aminotransferase Rv3722c governs aspartate-dependent nitrogen metabolism in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Jansen RS, Mandyoli L, Hughes R, Wakabayashi S, Pinkham JT, Selbach B, Guinn KM, Rubin EJ, Sacchettini JC, Rhee KY.Nat Commun. 2020 Apr 23;11(1):1960. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-15876-8.
Urinary biomarkers of mycobacterial load and treatment response in pulmonary tuberculosis.
Xia Q, Lee MH, Walsh KF, McAulay K, Bean JM, Fitzgerald DW, Dupnik KM, Johnson WD, Pape JW, Rhee KY, Isa F. JCI Insight. 2020 Sep 17;5(18):e136301. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.136301.