About
As a first generation college student, I received my B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemistry and Organic Chemistry, respectively, from Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea. I then earned my Ph.D. from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (Advisor: Prof. Karin Musier-Forsyth). After a period as a postdoctoral scholar at the Pennsylvania State University (Mentor: Prof. Stephen J. Benkovic), I joined the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) in 2011 and promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2018. As far as I know, I am the first Asian faculty who got promoted with a tenure at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UMBC.
Research interests
The long-term objective of my laboratory is to understand how metabolic flux is regulated in space and time by metabolic enzymes and their assemblies at subcellular levels in human cells, and how such regulatory networks are altered or reprogramed in human chronic diseases, including but not limited to cancer, diabetes, and obesity. Our seminal contributions to the discovery of two functionally relevant, spatially resolved metabolic assemblies in glucose metabolism and de novo purine biosynthesis in living human cells, namely the glucosome and the purinosome, respectively, have led us to explore three sustainable research objectives: (i) fundamental assembly mechanisms behind their reversible dynamics in living human cells, (ii) their regulatory mechanisms in association with signaling pathways, and (iii) their functional contributions to cellular metabolism and thus their alteration in human diseases. To achieve our goals, we have primarily employed quantitative fluorescence live-cell imaging by wide-field, confocal and lattice light sheet fluorescence microscopy (in collaboration with Dr. Minjoung Kyoung (UMBC)) to explore subcellular localization-function-regulation relationships of the metabolic assemblies in living human cells, yet we have also enthusiastically applied complementary biochemical, cellular and mathematical modeling methods. As of today, we have contributed to a new paradigm that spatial assemblies of metabolic enzymes represent their functional modes in regulation of metabolic flux and that their dynamics at single-cell as well as population levels represent real-time metabolic adaptation in given conditions. Collectively, our track record strongly supports that our lab has pioneered a previously unexplored territory of biochemistry, opening a new avenue of cellular biochemistry.
Teaching interests
Comprehensive Biochemistry II, Cellular Biochemistry, Molecular Imaging for Drug Discovery, Advanced Biochemistry, Introduction of General, Organic and Biochemistry.
Education
- Other, Enzymology / Biochemistry / Cell Biology — Pennsylvania State University (2011)
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Ph D, Biological Chemistry
— University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (2005) Mechanistic Studies of tRNA Recognition and Amino Acid Editing by Class II Prolyl-tRNA Synthetase and the YbaK Protein Paralog
- MS, Organic Chemistry — Yonsei University (1999)
- BS, Chemistry — Yonsei University (1997)