Lee Zou

Lee Zou is a cell biologist who made fundamental contributions to understanding how ATR is activated at stalled replication forks through RPA-coated single-stranded DNA, illuminating the mechanism of the replication stress checkpoint. His discoveries established the molecular basis for ATR inhibitor development as a therapeutic strategy for cancers with high replication stress. He has characterized how ATR coordinates replication fork restart, fork protection, and DNA damage signaling under conditions of nucleotide depletion and oncogene-induced replication stress.