Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, PhD

  • Professor of Medical Humanities and Ethics
Profile Headshot

Profile Navigation

Overview

Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, PhD, is Chief of the Division of Ethics and Professor of Medical Humanities and Ethics with tenure at Columbia University. Dr. Lee is a medical anthropologist with extensive experience leading multi-disciplinary bioethics research on race, ancestry and equity in genomics, precision medicine and artificial intelligence; governance of biorepositories and commercialization of biotechnology; and diversity in academic medicine and entrepreneurship. Her projects include The Ethics of Inclusion: Diversity in Precision Medicine Research (R01 HG010330), Beyond Consent: Patient Preferences for Governance of Use of Clinical Samples and Data (R01 LM012180) and Social Networking and Personal Genomics: Implications for Health Research (R01 HG005086). Dr. Lee publishes broadly in the genomics, medical, bioethics, and social science literatures, and co-edited Revisiting Race in a Genomic Age (2008), which resulted from a two year multi-disciplinary, cross-campus dialogue supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Stanford Humanities Institute. Dr. Lee is Co-PI of the Center for ELSI Resources and Analysis (CERA) funded by the NIH/NHGRI, a collaboration between Columbia and Stanford with partners at the Hastings Center and Harvard University. Dr. Lee is also the Co-Director of the NIH/NHGRI funded biennial International ELSI Congress.

Dr. Lee is President of The Association of Bioethics Program Directors and a Hastings Center Fellow. She has been an Economic and Social Research Council Bright Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, Wenner-Gren Foundation Faculty Fellow, a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in Medical Humanities and a Resident Fellow at the School for Advanced Research. Dr. Lee has served on the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on Use of Race, Ethnicity, and Ancestry as Population Descriptors in Genomics Research and as Chairperson of the Institutional Review Board at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California and on the NIH/NHGRI Coriell Consultation and Oversight Committee of the International Haplotype Map. Dr. Lee currently serves on both the Scientific and Bioethics Advisory Boards of the Kaiser Permanente National Research Biobank, the NIH Human Pangenome Research Consortium, and on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Bioethics and Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics, and the Editorial Advisory Committee for the American College of Medical Genetics Journals. Dr. Lee received her doctorate from the UC Berkeley/UCSF joint Ph.D program in Medical Anthropology and her undergraduate degree in Human Biology from Stanford University.

Academic Appointments

  • Professor of Medical Humanities and Ethics

Administrative Titles

  • Chief, Division of Ethics
  • Director, Team Science Resource (TEAMS) Columbia University Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research
  • Associate Director, Regulatory Knowledge and Support and Ethics Resource (RSKER) Columbia University Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research

Gender

  • Female

Credentials & Experience

Education & Training

  • BA, Stanford University
  • PhD, University of California, Berkeley
  • Fellowship: Stanford University

Research

Research Interests

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Bioethics
  • Genetics
  • Genomics
  • Health Equity and Disparities
  • Medical Anthropology
  • Precision Medicine
  • Science, Technology, and Society
  • Team Science

Grants

NIH/NHGRI R01 HG010330-01 Ethics of Diversity: Inclusion in Precision Medicine Research (PIs: Lee, S S-J -Stanford and Shim, J- UCSF)

NIH/NHGRI U13 HG010844-01 ELSI Biennial Congress (PI: Lee, S S-J - Columbia and Cho, M - Stanford)

NIH/NHGRI U24 HG010733-01 Center for ELSI Resources and Analysis (PIs: Lee, S S-J- Columbia and Cho, M-Stanford

NIH/NLM R01LM012180-01 Beyond Consent: Patient Preferences for Governance of Use of Clinical Samples and Data (PI: Lee, S S-J)

NIH/NHGRI R03HG010178-01 The Ethics of Inclusion: Conceptualizing Diversity in Genomics Research (PI: Lee, S S-J)

NIH/NHGRI R01HG005086-01 Social Networking and Personal Genomics: Emerging Issues in Health Research (PI: Lee, S S-J)

NIH/NCATS U01 RR025744 An Ethnography of Team Science: Case Study of Biodesign (PI: Lee S S-J)

NIH/NHGRI K01 HL72465 Distributive Justice and Human Genetic Variation Research. (PI: Lee, S S-J)

Selected Publications

Lee, S.S., Stephanie M. Fullerton, Caitlin E. McMahon, Mike Bentz, Aliya Saperstein, Melanie Jeske, Emily Vasquez, Nicole Foti, Larissa Saco, and Janet K. Shim. (2022) Targeting Representation: Interpreting Calls for Diversity in Precision Medicine Research. Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. 95(3), pp.317-326.

Lee, Sandra S.S, Paul S. Appelbaum, and Wendy K. Chung. (2022) Health Disparities in Genomic Medicine: Challenges and Potential Solutions. Cell. Jun 9;185(12):2007-10

Jeske, Melanie, Emily Vasquez, Stephanie M. Fullerton, Aliya Saperstein, Michael Bentz, Nicole Foti, Janet Shim and SS Lee (2022) Beyond inclusion: enacting team equity in precision medicine research. PLoSOne 17(2). E0263750.

Lee, Sandra Soo-Jin. (2020) The Gift: Reciprocity and Responsibility in Precision Medicine. American Journal of Bioethics.

Ethics of inclusion: Cultivate trust in precision medicine. Science (New York, N.Y.) Lee, S. S., Fullerton, S. M., Saperstein, A., Shim, J. K. 2019; 364 (6444): 941-42

"I don't want to be Henrietta Lacks": diverse patient perspectives on donating biospecimens for precision medicine research. Genetics in medicine : official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics Lee, S. S., Cho, M. K., Kraft, S. A., Varsava, N., Gillespie, K., Ormond, K. E., Wilfond, B. S., Magnus, D. 2018

Beyond Consent: Building Trusting Relationships With Diverse Populations in Precision Medicine Research AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOETHICS Kraft, S. A., Cho, M. K., Gillespie, K., Halley, M., Varsava, N., Ormond, K. E., Luft, H. S., Wilfond, B. S., Lee, S. S. 2018; 18 (4): 3-20

Excavating difference: race in genomic medicine HANDBOOK OF GENOMICS, HEALTH AND SOCIETY, 2ND EDITION Lee, S.S, Gibbon, S., Prainsack, B., Hilgartner, S., Lamoreaux, J.2018: 221-27

Anticipating uncertainty and irrevocable decisions: provider perspectives on implementing whole-genome sequencing in critically ill children with heart disease. Genetics in medicine : official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics Char, D. S., Lee, S. S., Magnus, D., Cho, M. 2018

Trustworthiness in Untrustworthy Times: Response to Open Peer Commentaries on Beyond Consent AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOETHICS Kraft, S. A., Cho, M. K., Gillespie, K., Varsava, N., Ormond, K. E., Wilfond, B. S., Lee, S. S. 2018; 18 (5): W6-W8More

Institutional culture is the key to team science NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY Lee, S.S., Jabloner, A.2017; 35 (12): 1212-14

A randomized study of multimedia informational aids for research on medical practices: Implications for informed consent CLINICAL TRIALS Kraft, S. A., Constantine, M., Magnus, D., Porter, K. M., Lee, S. S., Green, M., Kass, N. E., Wilfond, B. S., Cho, M. K.2017; 14 (1): 94-102More

Studying "Friends": The Ethics of Using Social Media as Research Platforms AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOETHICS Lee, S.S.2017; 17 (3): 1-2

For a complete list of publications, please visit PubMed.gov