Center for Cognition and Sociality

We want to explore how epigenomic regulation determines brain cell fate and function, and its relevance to neurological disorders. As the most abundant cell population in our brain, astrocytes are found in various neurological conditions. However, our understanding of astrocytic chromatin regulation is far beyond complete. We propose to employ the hiPSC-derived model system with multi-omics approaches (e.g., epigenomics, transcriptomics) to dissect underlying mechanisms of the astrocyte identity and function. In the long run, our goal is to lay the foundation for potential biomedical applications in treating neurological diseases.

Epigenomics, Astrocyte, hiPSC, Tripartite synapse, Neural activity, Single-cell RNA/ATAC-sequencing, Neurological disorder

• Comparative chromatin accessibility upon BDNF-induced neuronal activity delineates neuronal regulatory elements, Molecular Systems Biology, 2022
• The neurodevelopmental disorder-linked PHF14 complex that forms biomolecular condensates detects DNA damage and promotes repair, bioRxiv, 2021
• Zinc finger proteins orchestrate active gene silencing during embryonic stem cell differentiation, Nucleic Acids Res, 2018
• Psat1-Dependent Fluctuations in α-Ketoglutarate Affect the Timing of ESC Differentiation, Cell Metabolism, 2016

[Professional Experience]

• 2022-Present Young Scientist Fellow, IBS
• 2019-2022 EIPOD Post-doctoral fellow in Genome Biology and Structural Biology Unit, EMBL, Germany
• 2016-2018 Post-doctoral fellow in Seoul National University, College of Medicine, Korea
• 2009-2016 Ph.D. in Unified Master’s and Doctor’s Course in Department of Biomedical Sciences, Seoul National University, College of Medicine, Korea

[Honors and Awards]

• 2019-2022 EIPOD (EMBL Interdisciplanary Post Doctoral) fellowship, funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions
• 2018 Post-doctoral fellowship supported by Basic Science Research Program through National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education
• 2016 Outstanding Graduate Award - Department of Biomedical Sciences, Graduate School of Seoul National University