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Sangmi Chung, PhD

Research - RWJMS

Professor | Department of Neurosurgery | Rutgers RWJMS

Dr. Chung received his bachelor’s degree in Microbiology from Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea, and a PhD degree from Weill-Cornell Medicine Graduate School of Medical Sciences. His PhD was in Neuroscience. After his training at Weill-Cornell, Dr. Chung went on to complete his postdoctoral fellowship at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Belmont, MA.

He previously served as faculty at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, then at New York Medical College.

Dr. Chung is currently a Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, NJ. He is a member of Rutgers Brain Health Institute and serves as a member in the Neuroscience Graduate Program, Molecular Bioscience Graduate Program and Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program.

Dr. Chung conducts basic science research and runs the Translational Stem Cell Neurobiology Laboratory, supported by NIH and private foundation research fundings.

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Education:

Doctorate:
Neuroscience – “Characterization of Elav-like proteins”
Weill-Cornell Medicine Graduate School of Medical Science, 1998

Postdoctoral Fellowship:
Neuroscience/Stem cells
McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, 2006

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Research Interests:

  • GABAergic interneuron
  • Induced pluripotent stem cells
  • Neuronal development
  • Epilepsy
  • Schizophrenia
  • Neuropathic Pains
  • Alzheimer’s Disease

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Publications:

1. Cunningham, M., Cho, J.-H., Leung, A., Savvidis, G., Ahn, S., Moon, M., Lee, K.-J., Han, J., Azimi, N., Kim, K.-S., Bolshakov, V. and Chung, S*. Human pluripotent stem cell-derived maturing GABAergic interneurons integrate into the adult epileptic brain and ameliorate seizure and comorbid behavioral abnormalities. Cell Stem Cell 2014; 15: 559-573 (*Senior and corresponsing author for this paper)

2. Shao, Z., Noh, H., Kim, W.-B., Ni, P., Nguyen, C., Cote, S.E. Noyes, E., Zhao, J., Parsons, T., Park, J.M., Zheng, K., Park, J.J., Coyle, J.T., Weinberger, D.R., Straub, R.E., Berman, K.F., Apud, J., Ongur, D., Cohen, B.M., McPhie, D.L., Rapoport, J.L., Perlis, R.H., Lanz, T.A., Hualin Simon Xi9, Yin1, C., Huang, W., Hirayama, T., Fukuda, E., Yagi, T., Ghosh, S., Eggan, K.C., Kim, H.-Y., Eisenberg, L.M., Moghadam, A.A., Stanton, P.K., Cho, J.H. and Chung, S*. Dysregulated protocadherin-pathway activity as an intrinsic defect in induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cortical interneurons from subjects with schizophrenia. Nat Neurosci 2019; 22(2): 229-242 (*Senior and corresponsing author for this paper)

3. Ni, P., Noh, H., Shao, Z., Zhu, Q., Guan, Y., Park, J.J., Arif, F., Park, J.M., Abani, C., Beaudreault, C., Park, J.S., Berry, E., Moghadam, A., Stanton, P., Hutchinson, J.N., Andrews, B., Faux, C., Parnevelas, J., Eisenberg, L.M., Park, K., Bolshakov, V.Y. and Chung, S*. Large-Scale Generation and Characterization of Homogeneous Populations of Migratory Cortical Interneurons from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells. Mol Ther Methods Clin Dev 2019;13:414-430. (*Senior and corresponsing author for this paper)

4. Ni, P., Noh, H., Park, G.-H., Shao, Z., Guan, Y., Park, J. M., Yu, S., Park, J. S., Coyle, J. T., Weinberger, D. R., Straub, R. E., Cohen, B. M., McPhie, D. L., Yin, C., Huang, W., Kim, H.-Y. and Chung, S*. iPSC-derived homogeneous populations of developing schizophrenia cortical interneurons have compromised mitochondrial function. Molecular Psychiatry 2019; doi: 10.1038/s41380-019-0423-3. [Epub ahead of print] (*Senior and corresponsing author for this paper)

5. Zhu, Q, Mishra, A., Park, J.S., Liu, D., Le, D.T., Gonzalez, S.Z., Anderson-Crannage,M., Park, J.M., Park, G.-H., Tarbay, L., Daneshvar, K., Brandenburg, M., Signoretti, C., Zinski, A., Gardner, E.-J., Zheng, K.L., Abani, C.P., Hu, C., Beaudreault, C.P., Zhang, X.-L., Stanton, P.K., Cho, J.-H., Velišek, L., Veliškova, J., Javed, S., Leonard, C.S. and Chung, S.*. Human cortical interneurons optimized for grafting specifically integrate, abort seizures and display prolonged efficacy without over-inhibition. Neuron 2023 Mar 15;111(6):807-823.e7. (*Senior and corresponsing author for this paper)

6. Park, G.-H., Noh, H., Shao, Z., Ni, P., Qin, Y., Liu, D., Beaudreault, C., Park, J.S., Abani, C., Park, J.M., Le, D., Gonzalez, S., Guan, Y., Cohen, B.M., McPhie, D.L., Coyle, J.T., Lanz, T.A., Xi, H.S., Yin, C., Huang, W, Kim, H.-Y. and Chung, S*. Activated microglia cause metabolic disruptions in developmental cortical interneuron that persist in schizophrenia-patient-derived interneurons. Nat Neurosci 2020; 23(11):1352-1364 (*Senior and corresponsing author for this paper)

7. Liu, D., Zinski, A., Mishra, A., Noh, H., Park, G., Qin, Y., Olorife, O., Park, J.M., Abani, C.P., Park, J.S., Fung, J., Sawaqed, F., Coyle, J.T., Stahl, E., Bendl, J., Fullard, J.F., Roussos, P., Zhang, X., Stanton, P.K., Yin, C., Huang, W., Kim, H., Won, H., Cho, J. and Chung, S.*. Impact of Schizophrenia GWAS loci converge onto distinct pathways in cortical interneurons vs glutamatergic neurons during development. Molecular Psychiatry. 2022 Jun 14. doi: 10.1038/s41380-022-01654-z. Online ahead of print. (*Senior and corresponsing author for this paper)

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Location:

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Department of Neurosurgery, Rutgers University,
675 Hoes Lane West, RT749
Piscataway, NJ 08854