Michael Radcliffe Lee was born in Manchester, England, on 21 November 1934. He went to primary school in Higher Blackley and his secondary education took place first at Sale High School for Boys Preparatory School from 1946, and then, from 1948, at Manchester Grammar School. In 1952, he was awarded a scholarship and entered Brasenose College, Oxford University in 1953. In 1956 he was awarded the degree of BA (First Class Honours) in Animal Physiology

In 1956 he entered Manchester University for a clinical course, again on a scholarship. In 1959 he qualified as BM BCh (Oxon) in Clinical Medicine, the same year he was preliminary registered with the General Medical Council as a medical practitioner. Between 1959 and 1960 Lee worked at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, and at the Manchester Royal Infirmary. That same year, in 1960, he married Judith Ann Horrocks in Keswick, Cumberland.

From 1960 to 1969 he worked briefly at Llandough Hospital, Cardiff, as a Senior House Officer, and then for a more lengthy period as a Lecturer at Regius Professor of Medicine's Unit at Oxford University. In 1969 he moved to St. Thomas' Hospital Medical Schoool in London as a Lecturer in Medicine, then in 1971 until 1973 he was Medical Director, then Managing Director of Weddel Pharmaceuticals in London.

In 1973, Lee returned to teaching as Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Leeds, then in 1984 he became Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics at the University of Edinburgh.

In 1961, Lee had passed the membership examination of the Royal College of Physicians (London). In 1966 he was awarded the degree of D.Phil for his thesis entitled The estimation of renin in biological fluids, and in 1970 the degree of DM (Oxon) on the basis of the thesis. In 1977 he was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians (London), and in 1985 a Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh). In 1990 he was also awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE).

Michael Radcliffe Lee retired from the University of Edinburgh Medical School in 1995 and then the following year, until 1998, he served as an Advising Consultant to Astra Pharmaceuticals in Edinburgh. He has a continuing interest in Medical History.

Lees' publications include Renin and hypertension: a modern synthesis (1969), and, his biography, Stood on the shoulders of giants (2003). He has also contributed to the text-book Clinical toxicology (1983).