
Yu Leo Lei
Dr. Yu Leo Lei is an oral pathologist-immunologist who actively provides service to many institutional, foundational, and national committees, such as the steering committee of the NCI Cancer Moonshot Immuno-Oncology Translational Network, the NCI PREVENT panel, and the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center Research Committee. He is a tenured Associate Professor of Dentistry and of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is also an attending oral pathologist at the University of Michigan Oral Pathology Biopsy Service. He received his Ph.D. from Dr. Jenny P.-Y. Ting at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and completed his Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology Residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Lei completed a T32- and K99-supported Head and Neck Oncology Fellowship with Dr. Robert L. Ferris at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center. Dr. Lei’s group has made seminal discoveries of the oncogenic and viral regulators of the innate immune system. He has published in leading journals with a citation of over 15,800 times and is a recipient of the NIH Rising Stars award. His work is continuously supported by the NIH, among others. He is also an entrepreneur and a co-founder of a start-up company Saros Therapeutics that focuses on developing advanced nanotechnology for cancer immunotherapy and immunoprevention. He also serves as a KOL advisory board member for Brooklyn Immunotherapeutics.