Justin Lees PhD

Dr. Justin Guy Thomas Lees was awarded a Ph.D. from the Medical Faculty of UNSW in 2008 – ‘Differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells into Beta Cell Surrogates as a Therapy for Type 1 Diabetes. During Justin Lees's Ph.D. studies, Justin Lees co-authored a successful Beta-cell Alliance pilot grant from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (2005-2007 - $230,000). Justin Lees received two ‘Merck, Sharp, and Dome - Research Awards’ and two ‘Tow Coastal Association - Research Medals for oral presentation skills. Justin Lees also received the ‘Holmes, Wilkinson, and Lowry Ph.D. scholarship, and my Ph.D. studies resulted in the publication of 11 peer-reviewed journal manuscripts.

In 2009, Justin Lees was appointed to a post-doctoral position in the laboratory of A/Prof. Geraldine O’Neill within the Kids Research Institute at Westmead Children’s Hospital, where researched cytoskeletal regulation of cell migration and cancer metastasis. In this role, Justin Lees was the sole CI on a successful Category B Cancer Australia – Cure Cancer project grant (2011). Justin Lees was also awarded the NSW Government Post-Doctoral Award for research excellence (2011) for oral presentation skills and the Australian Society for Medical Research (ASMR) Award (2012).

In 2013, Justin Lees was appointed to a 2nd post-doctoral position in the laboratory of Dr. Gila Moalem-Taylor at the School of Medical Sciences, UNSW, where Justin Lees now focused on neuroinflammation and neuropathic pain research. Justin Lees was a named associate investigator on a successful Cancer Institute NSW - Translational Program Grant (2015-2020) to support the treatment and prevention of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). Justin Lees have contributed substantially to establishing a sensory neuron/neuroprotectant assessment assay, which attracted several hundred thousand dollars worth of contract work from two separate pharmaceutical companies (2018-2019).