Brian K. Lee, MD

Clinical Biography

Brian K. Lee, MD, is a board-certified transplant nephrologist and the Medical Director of the Kidney Transplant Program within the Abdominal Transplant Center, a clinical partnership between Ascension Seton and UT Health Austin. He specializes in caring for both adult and young adult patients with end-stage kidney disease who may benefit from a kidney transplant. Additionally, Dr. Lee is a professor in the Dell Medical School Department of Internal Medicine at The University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Lee earned his medical degree from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He completed both an internship and residency in internal medicine as well as a fellowship in nephrology and hypertension at MetroHealth Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University. He also completed a fellowship in transplant nephrology at the University of California, San Francisco and a fellowship in integrative medicine at The University of Arizona to inform patients on the use of complementary and alternative medicine during the kidney transplant process.

Dr. Lee previously served as the Medical Director of the Living Kidney Donor Program at the University of California, San Francisco, where his team performed evaluations to get patients added to the kidney transplant wait list, evaluated prospective living donors, and ensured compatibility between donors and recipients. In his current role, in addition to helping complete pre-surgical workups, he provides care for patients after surgery and follows up with patients to manage immunosuppression and any other complications that may occur. If a patient’s kidneys fail after surgery, he helps evaluate the patient for a second transplant. His research focuses on living donation, and he studies the barriers to donation, the outcomes of transplants from living donors, and ways to optimize kidney function and longevity following living donor transplantation. He also studies how to desensitize recipients (lower antibody levels) to lower their risk of a rapid, severe rejection of the transplanted organ. He is a member of the American Society of Nephrology, the American Society of Transplantation, and the National Kidney Registry.

Dr. Lee is a transplant nephrologist with UT Health Austin.