About

Yong Jae Lee is a Professor in the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His core research interests lie in computer vision and machine learning, with a particular focus on creating robust AI systems capable of learning to understand our multimodal world with minimal human supervision. Prior to joining UW-Madison in 2021, he spent one year as an AI Visiting Faculty at Cruise and six years as an Assistant and then Associate Professor at UC Davis. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012 under the advisement of Kristen Grauman, followed by postdoctoral research at Carnegie Mellon University (2012-2013) and UC Berkeley (2013-2014) advised by Alyosha Efros. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, obtained in 2006. Throughout his career, Yong Jae Lee has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Army Research Office Young Investigator Program Award, the UC Davis Hellman Fellowship, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, AWS Machine Learning Research Awards, Adobe Data Science Research Awards, the UC Davis College of Engineering Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, Sony Focused Research Awards, the UW-Madison SACM Student Choice Professor of the Year Award, the Susan Beth Horwitz Professorship, and the H. I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship. His work, often in collaboration with others, has also received accolades such as the Most Innovative Award at the COCO Object Detection Challenge ICCV 2019 and the Best Paper Award at BMVC 2020.

Research topics

• Biology
• Biochemistry
• Computational biology
• Chemistry
• Anatomy
• Genetics
• Cell biology
• Ecology
• Botany

Selected publications

• The pretreatment of sugar, calcium and vitamin C to enhance the color, texture and flavor properties of frozen avocado

  New Biotechnology · 2025-03-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• A study of Chinese Generation Z women's intention to experience Hanfu using the Theory of Planned Behaviour : Patriotism as a mediating effect

  Korea Institute of Design Research Society · 2025-03-31

  articleSenior author

  This study conducted an online and offline survey of 400 women in their 20s and 30s living in Beijing from September 1 to 10, 2024 to analyze factors that affect the intention of Chinese Generation Z women to experience HanFu based on the theory of planned behavior. Using SPSS 26.0, 328 parts of valid data were used for reliability, validity, regression analysis, and regulatory effect analysis. The analysis results showed that first, attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavior control all have meaningful positive effects on HanFu experience intentions. Second, patriotism has been shown to have a positive impact by adjusting the relationship between attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavior control and experience intentions. These results expand the understanding of traditional culture consumption of Generation Z in China and provide basic information on the establishment of marketing strategies for the revival and propagation of traditional culture through HanFu experience.

  PublisherDOI

• The War Between Plants and Microorganisms

  2025-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Relationship Between Plants and Insects

  2025-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• How Do Plants Distinguish Between Beneficial and Harmful Microorganisms?

  2025-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Parasitism in Plants

  2025-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• BPS2025 - LRRC10 exerts L-type Ca2+ current-specific modulation through interaction with the N-terminus of CaV1.2

  Biophysical Journal · 2025-02-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Plants in Symbiosis with Microorganisms

  2025-01-01

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Abstract 4140244: In a Murine Model of Experimental Sepsis, Cardiac-Specific Jarid2 Knockdown is Associated With Improved Myocardial Function and Survival

  Circulation · 2024-11-12

  article

  Introduction: Sepsis is a life-threatening condition characterized by a dysregulated host response to infection, leading to acute heart failure, decreased contractile function, and biventricular dilation. Emerging evidence suggests that the transcriptional repressor Jarid2 may play a regulatory role in sepsis. Hypothesis: We hypothesize that cardiac-specific knockdown (KD) of Jarid2 could enhance cardiac function and improve survival in response to sepsis. Methods: We generated mice with cardiac-specific Jarid2KD using an alpha myosin heavy chain-specific Cre-LoxP system. Using an in vivo model of cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) with 12-week-old wild-type (WT) and cardiac-specific Jarid2KD mice we investigated whether Jarid2 is a potential novel target for sepsis treatment. Results: In response to 48 hours of CLP, WT mice exhibited over 60% mortality vs. WT-Sham. Survivors developed bacterial peritonitis, an increased inflammatory response (left ventricle (LV): 15-fold increase in IL-6, 3-fold increase in IL-1β and TNF-α, vs. WT-Sham), and apoptosis (LV: 2.5-fold increase in apoptotic Bax/Bcl2 ratio vs. WT-Sham). Jarid2KD showed myocardial dysfunction with a 20-35% decrease in dp/dt, echo-derived ejection fraction (EF), fractional shortening (FS)), a switch from adult α-myosin heavy chain (MHC) to fetal β-MHC, and a 40-50% reduction in LV Jarid2 mRNA and protein compared to WT-Sham. In contrast, Jarid2KD mice despite a similar decrease in LV Jarid2 expression to WT-CLP mice, demonstrated resistance to CLP-induced bacterial peritonitis with cardiac function (dp/dt, EF, FS) similar to the WT-Sham. Histological staining revealed better organization of cardiomyocytes and preservation of functional ultrastructure. Furthermore, Jairid2KD displayed a survival rate of over 90%, a reduced LV inflammatory response (LV: 2-fold increase in IL-6, no change in IL-1β and TNF-α), maintenance of α-MHC, and absence of apoptosis vs. WT-CLP. Metabolic genes such as NDUFA9, Cox4il, ND1, ND4 and PGC1b were downregulated approximately 60-75 per cent in Jarid2KD vs WT-CLP suggesting an improved ability to regulate energy usage. Improved survival was observed even 7 days post-CLP (65% in WT-CLP compared to 100% in Jarid2KD). Conclusion: Cardiac-specific JARID2KD improves survival and reduces sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction. Thus, Jarid2 may serve as a novel therapeutic target for treating sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction.

  PublisherDOI

• Abstract Mo059: Leucine-Rich Repeat-Containing Protein 10 Modulates Human Cardiac L-Type Ca2+ Channels but not T-Type Ca2+ Channels

  Circulation Research · 2024-08-02

  article

  Background: Leucine-rich repeat-containing protein 10 (LRRC10) is a novel regulator of the cardiac L-type Ca 2+ channel/current (LTCC/I Ca,L ). LRRC10 is crucial for cardiac regeneration in multiple species, and LRRC10 variants have been associated with dilated cardiomyopathy in humans. LRRC10 increases I Ca,L in HEK-293 cells expressing rabbit Ca V 1.2 subunit, and knockout of LRRC10 in zebrafish and mouse cardiomyocytes (CM) reduces I Ca,L . However, LRRC10-mediated regulation of human cardiac LTCC has not been demonstrated, and the mechanism by which LRRC10 modulates LTCC is not known. Moreover, the effect of LRRC10 on the T-type Ca 2+ channel/current (TTCC/I Ca,T ), which has been implicated in CM cell cycle regulation, has never been tested. Methods: LRRC10 knockout ( LRRC10 –/– ) human induced-pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) were generated from wild-type (WT) DF19-9-11T hiPSCs using CRISPR-Cas9 techniques. LRRC10 –/– and WT hiPSCs were differentiated to CMs using the standard GiWi protocol. Whole-cell I Ca,L and I Ca,T were examined in LRRC10 –/– and WT hiPSC-CMs. Whole-cell I Ca,L was also assessed in HEK-293 cells expressing human cardiac LTCC subunits (Ca V 1.2, β 2 , and α 2 δ) with or without human LRRC10. To identify the LRRC10-interacting site of Ca V 1.2, GST-pulldown assays were performed using purified GST-fusion constructs of the intracellular domains of rabbit Ca V 1.2 and lysates from HEK-293 cells expressing human LRRC10. Ca V protein sequences were analyzed using the Clustal Omega program. Results: Genetic ablation of LRRC10 in hiPSC-CMs decreased peak I Ca,L (WT -29.4±2.2 pA/pF, LRRC10 –/– -15.0±1.8 pA/pF, p<0.01) but did not significantly affect I Ca,T magnitude (WT -3.9±0.5 pA/pF, LRRC10 –/– -4.0±0.7 pA/pF, p>0.05 [NS]). LRRC10 increased peak I Ca,L in HEK-293 cells expressing human LTCC (with LRRC10 -156.0±19.8 pA/pF, without LRRC10 -60.2±12.0 pA/pF, p<0.05). LRRC10 was pulled down by the GST-Ca V 1.2-N-terminus but not by other GST-Ca V 1.2 constructs. Sequence analyses revealed an invariant exon 2-encoded segment of the N-terminus (NT) that was present in both human and rabbit LTCC Ca V 1.2 but not in TTCC Ca V 3.1 and Ca V 3.2. Conclusions: The Ca 2+ influx-potentiating effect of LRRC10 is conserved in human LTCC and is specific to regulate I Ca,L , not I Ca,T . The invariant Ca V 1.2 NT segment is a potential LRRC10-interacting site. The LRRC10 –/– hiPSC line is a promising tool for future investigations into the roles of LRRC10-LTCC interaction in human cardiac biology and disease.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01HL067050

  NIH · $2.7M · 2012

Frequent coauthors

• Enrico Martinoia

  University of Zurich

  92 shared

• Won‐Yong Song

  Foshan University

  34 shared

• Yuree Lee

  Seoul National University

  33 shared

• Yonghua Li‐Beisson

  Henan Agricultural University

  31 shared

• Jae‐Ung Hwang

  Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology

  30 shared

• Yasuyo Yamaoka

  Catholic University of Korea

  29 shared

• Nava Moran

  Hebrew University of Jerusalem

  23 shared

• Jeeyon Jeong

  Amherst College

  20 shared

Education

• B.S.

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  2006

• Ph.D.

  University of Texas at Austin

  2012

• Other

  EECS Dept at UC Berkeley

  2014

• Other

  Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University

  2013

Awards & honors

• H.I. Romnes Faculty Fellowship (2025)
• Susan Beth Horwitz Professorship (2025)
• Best Paper Award at BMVC 2020
• UC Davis College of Engineering Outstanding Junior Faculty A…
• UC Davis Best Graduate Researcher in Computer Science Award…