August 25, 2026
By Tracie Troha

Hohyun (Henry) Lee, B.S. ME 2019, M.S. ME 2020, Ph.D. ME 2024, a postdoctoral fellow in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has been selected for the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance (CTSA) TL1 Postdoctoral Program.

His fellowship project, “A Clinically Deployable AI-Driven Transcranial Focused Ultrasound for Targeted Drug Delivery in Brain Tumors," aims to advance brain tumor treatment using focused ultrasound and artificial intelligence. The project builds on Lee’s research with Associate Professor Costas Arvanitis in the Ultrasound Biophysics & Bioengineering Laboratory.

His research focuses on overcoming one of the biggest challenges in treating brain diseases: the blood-brain barrier, which protects the brain but prevents many potentially beneficial drugs from reaching it. Lee’s work explores how focused ultrasound and microbubbles can temporarily and precisely open this barrier, allowing treatments to reach targeted areas of the brain. He is also investigating how machine learning can help predict, monitor, and personalize the process to improve safety and effectiveness.

"Professionally, this fellowship is an opportunity to grow beyond developing technology in the lab and to learn how to shape that work around real clinical needs," Lee said. "The TL1 program gives me a chance to connect those tools more directly with patient-centered questions."

The fellowship will provide Lee with advanced training in translational science and connect him with clinicians, researchers, and fellow trainees across disciplines. For his TL1 project, Lee will be co-mentored by Anant Madabhushi, the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering; Dr. Tobey MacDonald of Emory University; Dr. Graeme Woodworth of the University of Maryland; and Dr. Henry Brem of Johns Hopkins University — a team of leading physician-scientists, clinicians, and translational researchers whose guidance will help connect his engineering research more directly with clinical needs in brain tumor therapy.

Lee is particularly excited to learn from experts working at the intersection of research and patient care.

"I see this as a chance to broaden the way I think about research, learn what matters most in clinical settings, and bring that perspective back to the technologies I develop," he said.

Through the TL1 program, Lee hopes to accelerate the development of technologies to treat brain tumors and other neurological diseases.