Byron Lee

Byron Lee, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He attended medical and graduate school at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he developed an interest in urologic cancer research with a focus on cancer epigenetics. After finishing urology residency at Cleveland Clinic, he spent one year at Stanford University as a postdoctoral fellow before completing urologic oncology fellowship training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He returned to Cleveland Clinic as a staff surgeon-scientist before joining the faculty at MD Anderson.

In addition to performing endoscopic and robotic surgery for bladder cancer patients, Dr. Lee leads a basic and translational research laboratory that focuses on examining the biologic effects of chromatin modifier gene mutations on the urothelium and tumor microenvironment. He has successfully competed for a Kimmel Scholar Award from the Sidney Kimmel Foundation, a Young Investigator Award from the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network, a K08 career development award from the National Cancer Institute, and a multi-PI U01 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases that seeks to generate a single cell transcriptome and regulatory map of the human ureter and bladder. His long-term career goal is to improve the lives of bladder cancer patients through excellent surgical care and impactful research.