Rate My Professor Holly Lee

Dr. Holly Lee is a clinician-scientist and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, Department of Medicine, Hematology. She completed her medical training at the University of Toronto, followed by internal medicine and hematology residency training at the University of Calgary. Dr. Lee earned her Ph.D. at the University of Calgary in the laboratory of Dr. Nizar Bahlis, where her doctoral work examined multiple myeloma tumor intrinsic resistance mechanisms and antigen escape under immunotherapeutic pressure. She successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis in May 2025.

Dr. Lee’s research program centers on multiple myeloma biology and the development of novel immunotherapies, with a focus on how immune pressure and targeted immunotherapies shape tumor evolution, particularly resistance to T-cell engagers and CAR T-cell therapies. Her work integrates multi-omic profiling, mechanistic modeling, and engineered model systems to investigate tumor cell phenotype rewiring in response to therapy, with the goal of translating findings into improved immune-based treatments. She is a member of the Arnie Charbonneau Cancer Institute and the Riddell Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy. In 2023, Dr. Lee received a Research Fellows Award from the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.