Postdoctoral applicant · Dorkenwald / Fiete Labs, K. Lisa Yang ICoN Center, MIT McGovern
101 Canal Street Boston, MA 02114 (551) 239-0341 sjkang89@gmail.com
Professional statusMoving from wet-lab immunology into computational neuroscience. I build methods that infer cellular identity, state, and interaction from large, incomplete single-cell and spatial data.
Research objectivesto connect molecular cell identity to circuit structure and function, by integrating connectomics with transcriptomics and growing into connectome-constrained circuit models.
Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea Department of Biomedical Sciences Thesis: Exploration of the Regulatory T-cell Role in Various Pathogenic Contexts Advisor: Chung-Gyu Park, M.D., Ph.D.
M.S.2012–2014
Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea Department of Biomedical Sciences Thesis: Enhanced LPS-Induced Monocyte Activation by Recombinant Human Soluble CD14 Advisor: Chung-Gyu Park, M.D., Ph.D.
B.S.2008–2012
Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Republic of Korea Department of Genetic Engineering
Research & Professional Experience
Researcher (postdoctoral)2025–2026
Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine — Dept. of Physiology / Organelle Medicine Research Center, Wonju, Republic of Korea Developed deep-learning multimodal-integration models fusing imaging, transcriptomic, and clinical data into single predictive models.
Associate Director2023–2025
PB Immune Therapeutics Inc. — Dept. of Basic Research, Seoul, Republic of Korea Built in-house single-cell & spatial transcriptomics analysis code from scratch; led cross-functional NHP (cynomolgus, marmoset) EAE/multiple-sclerosis multi-omic studies; oversaw regulatory documentation for an anti-CD40 humanized-antibody program.
Manager2021–2023
PB Immune Therapeutics Inc. — Dept. of Basic Research, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Researcher2019–2021
Xenotransplantation Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea Rhesus macaque tissue processing, longitudinal immune monitoring, and CNS (brain/spinal cord) tissue handling for immunological analysis.
Research Student2020–2023
SCAID — Single Cell Atlas of Immune Diseases, Genomic Medicine Institute, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea Contributed the founding proposal; executed within the funded program (700+ donors × 8 organs) — milestone tracking, multi-site QC, multi-PI coordination.
Teaching Assistant2014–2016
Seoul National University College of Medicine — Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology, Seoul, Republic of Korea
2026Woogil Song*, Seong-Jun Kang*, Taehee Stella Kim*, Seyoung Jung, Sung Hee Kim, Su Chan Park, Sung Hae Chang, Eun Young Lee, Tae-Gyun Kim, Hyun Je Kim, Jeong Seok Lee. "Conserved PDE4D short-isoform bias defines pathogenic Th1.17 state across human inflammatory diseases."Nature Immunology. IF 27.7under reviewFirst author (co-first). Built custom UMI-aware, BAM-level analysis code (Python) that resolves PDE4D short- vs long-isoform identity from 5′ scRNA-seq; consensus NMF programs; scRNA + scTCR + snATAC integration; disease-state ML classifier (AUC 0.780); cross-disease meta-analysis across the SCAID atlas (702 samples, 23 diseases). 251,055 memory CD4⁺ T cells.
2025Seong-Jun Kang*, Yong-Hee Kim*, Thuy Nguyen-Phuong*, Yijoon Kim, Jin-Mi Oh, Jae-chun Go, DaeSik Kim, Chung-Gyu Park, Hyunsu Lee, Hyun Je Kim. "Immune cell-enriched single-cell RNA sequencing unveils the interplay between infiltrated CD8⁺ T resident memory cells and choroid plexus epithelial cells in Alzheimer's disease."Journal of Neuroimmunology. IF 2.9 Download PDFFirst author (co-first). Built the complete brain-immune single-cell analysis path (whole-brain harvest → enzymatic digestion → Percoll enrichment → FACS → 10x → analysis); identified exhausted CD8⁺ tissue-resident memory T cells engaging choroid-plexus epithelium (↑ MHC-I and interferon-stimulated genes) at the blood–CSF barrier. 11,587 cells, 10 immune populations.
2025Seong-Jun Kang*, Jeong-Ryeol Gong*, Seon-Pil Jin, Jin-Mi Oh, Hyunjin Jin, Yuji Lee, Yewon Moon, Dongjun Kim, Hyo Jeong Nam, Hyun Seung Choi, Sanha Hwang, Yun Jung Huh, Kyung Yeon Han, Jihwan Moon, Jongsuk Chung, Woong-Yang Park, Chung-Gyu Park, Hyun Je Kim, Jeong Eun Kim. "Deciphering Dysfunctional Regulatory T Cells in Atopic Dermatitis."Allergy. IF 12.6 Download PDFFirst author (co-first). Single-cell and functional dissection of dysfunctional skin-homing (CLA⁺) regulatory T cells in atopic dermatitis; OX40 (TNFRSF4) up-regulated alongside impaired suppressive function.
2024Jong-Min Kim*, Seong-Jun Kang*, So-Hee Hong, Hyunwoo Chung, Jun-Seop Shin, Byoung-Hoon Min, Hyun Je Kim, Jongwon Ha, Chung-Gyu Park. "Long-term control of diabetes by tofacitinib-based immunosuppressive regimen after allo-islet transplantation in diabetic rhesus monkeys that rejected previously transplanted porcine islets."Xenotransplantation. IF 3.9 Download PDFFirst author (co-first). Long-term diabetes control with a tofacitinib-based regimen after allo-islet transplantation in rhesus macaques; longitudinal immune monitoring.
2022Youngkyoung Lim*, Seong-Jun Kang*, Bum Keun Cho, Hyun Je Kim, Chung-Gyu Park. "Intra-tumoral heterogeneity and immune escape of melanoma arising from congenital melanocytic nevus revealed by spatial gene expression profiling."JEADV. IF 9.2 Download PDFFirst author (co-first). Spatial gene-expression profiling of nevus-arising melanoma; depth-dependent intra-tumoral heterogeneity and immune escape.
2019Jong Min Kim, Jun Seop Shin, Byoung Hoon Min, Seong-Jun Kang*, Il Hee Yoon, Hyunwoo Chung, Jiyeon Kim, Eung Soo Hwang, Jongwon Ha, Chung Gyu Park. "JAK3 inhibitor-based immunosuppression in allogeneic islet transplantation in cynomolgus monkeys."Islets. IF 2.2 Download PDFFirst author (co-first). JAK3-inhibitor-based immunosuppression in allogeneic islet transplantation in cynomolgus macaques.
Contributing Author
2026Jung Ho Lee*, Sung Ha Lim*, Hyungdon Kook, Seong-Jun Kang, Geon Lee, Brian Hyohyoung Lee, Hyunsung Nam, YongJun Kim, Christine Suh-Yun Joh, Soyoung Jeong, Dongryeol Shin, Hyun Je Kim, Jiyoung Ahn. "Mycosis Fungoides-like Atopic Dermatitis Represents a Th22-dominant Inflammatory Endotype."Allergy. IF 12.6Performed the scRNA-seq & scTCR-seq analysis (scVI cross-dataset integration with public MF/AD cohorts, InferCNV genomic-identity inference, scTCR clonality). Showed mfAD is a reactive, oligoclonal Th22 endotype rather than a malignancy, responsive to JAK1 inhibition. 248,881 cells.
2024Brian Hyohyoung Lee*, Yoon Ji Bang*, Sung Ha Lim*, Seong-Jun Kang, Sung Hee Kim, Seunghee Kim-Schulze, Chung-Gyu Park, Hyun Je Kim, Tae-Gyun Kim. "High-dimensional profiling of regulatory T cells in psoriasis reveals an impaired skin-trafficking property."eBioMedicine. IF 11.1 Download PDFCo-author. High-dimensional immune profiling of regulatory T cells in psoriasis, revealing an impaired skin-trafficking phenotype.
2024Youngkyoung Lim*, Beom Keun Cho*, Seong-Jun Kang, Soyoung Jeong, Hyun Je Kim, Jiyoon Baek, Ji Hwan Moon, Cheol Lee, Chan-Sik Park, Je-Ho Mun, Chong Hyun Won, Chung-Gyu Park. "Spatial transcriptomic analysis of tumour–immune cell interactions in melanoma arising from congenital melanocytic nevus."JEADV. IF 9.2 Download PDFCo-author. Spatial transcriptomic (GeoMx) analysis of tumour–immune cell interactions in nevus-arising melanoma.
2023Sunyoung Jung*, Sunho Lee, Hyun Je Kim, Sueon Kim, Ji Hwan Moon, Hyunwoo Chung, Seong-Jun Kang, Chung-Gyu Park. "Mesenchymal stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles subvert Th17 cells by destabilizing RORγt through posttranslational modification."Experimental & Molecular Medicine. IF 12.8Co-author. MSC-derived extracellular vesicles suppress Th17 cells by destabilizing RORγt via post-translational modification.
2022Sangho Lee, Han-Teo Lee, Young Ah Kim, Il-Hwan Lee, Seong-Jun Kang, Kyeongpyo Sim, Chung-Gyu Park, Kyungho Choi, Hong-Duk Youn. "The optimized core peptide derived from CABIN1 efficiently inhibits calcineurin-mediated T-cell activation."Experimental & Molecular Medicine. IF 12.8Co-author. An optimized CABIN1-derived core peptide inhibits calcineurin-mediated T-cell activation.
2021So Hee Hong, Hyun Je Kim, Seong-Jun Kang, Chung-Gyu Park. "Novel Immunomodulatory Approaches for Porcine Islet Xenotransplantation."Current Diabetes Reports. IF 4.2 Download PDFCo-author. Review of novel immunomodulatory strategies for porcine islet xenotransplantation.
2020Sunho Lee, Sueon Kim, Hyunwoo Chung, Ji Hwan Moon, Seong-Jun Kang, Chung-Gyu Park. "Mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes suppress proliferation of T cells by inducing cell cycle arrest through p27kip1/Cdk2 signaling."Immunology Letters. IF 4.4Co-author. MSC-derived exosomes suppress T-cell proliferation through p27kip1/Cdk2-mediated cell-cycle arrest.
2019Hyun Je Kim, Ji Hwan Moon, Hyunwoo Chung, Jun-Seop Shin, Bongi Kim, Jong Min Kim, Jung-Sik Kim, Il-Hee Yoon, Byoung-Hoon Min, Seong-Jun Kang, Yong-Hee Kim, Kyuri Jo, Joungmin Choi, Heejoon Chae, Won Woo Lee, Sun Kim, Chung-Gyu Park. "Bioinformatic analysis of peripheral blood RNA-sequencing sensitively detects the cause of late graft loss following overt hyperglycemia in pig-to-non-human primate islet xenotransplantation."Scientific Reports. IF 4.6Co-author. Bioinformatic analysis of peripheral-blood RNA-seq to detect causes of late graft loss in pig-to-NHP islet xenotransplantation.
2018Byoung-Hoon Min, Jun-Seop Shin, Jong-Min Kim, Seong-Jun Kang, Hyun-Je Kim, Il-Hee Yoon, Su-Kyoung Park, Ji-won Choi, Min-Suk Lee, Chung-Gyu Park. "Delayed revascularization of islets after transplantation by IL-6 blockade in pig-to-non-human primate islet xenotransplantation model."Xenotransplantation. IF 3.9Co-author. IL-6 blockade delays islet revascularization in a pig-to-NHP islet xenotransplantation model.
2018Jun-Seop Shin, Jong-Min Kim, Byoung-Hoon Min, Il Hee Yoon, Hyun Je Kim, Jung-Sik Kim, Yong-Hee Kim, Seong-Jun Kang, Jiyeon Kim, Hee-Jung Kang, Dong-Gyun Lim, Eung-Soo Hwang, Jongwon Ha, Sang-Joon Kim, Wan Beom Park, Chung-Gyu Park. "Pre-clinical results in pig-to-non-human primate islet xenotransplantation using anti-CD40 antibody (2C10R4)-based immunosuppression."Xenotransplantation. IF 3.9Co-author. Pre-clinical pig-to-NHP islet xenotransplantation with anti-CD40 (2C10R4)-based immunosuppression.
2018Jong-Min Kim, Jun-Seop Shin, Byoung-Hoon Min, Il Hee Yoon, Seong-Jun Kang, Won-Young Jeong, Sang-Joon Kim, Chung-Gyu Park. "Pre-Clinical Results of Islet Allo-Transplantation Using JAK Inhibitor as Replacement for Tacrolimus in Cynomolgus Monkeys."Transplantation. IF 6.2Co-author. Pre-clinical islet allo-transplantation using a JAK inhibitor in place of tacrolimus in cynomolgus macaques.
2018Jung-Sik Kim, Hyunwoo Chung, Nari Byun, Seong-Jun Kang, Sunho Lee, Jun-Seop Shin, Chung-Gyu Park. "Construction of EMSC-islet co-localizing composites for xenogeneic porcine islet transplantation."Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. IF 3.1Co-author. Engineered EMSC-islet co-localizing composites for xenogeneic porcine islet transplantation.
Research Grants & Funding
Industry — PB Immune Therapeutics (Manager → Associate Director)
Funding Agency / Sponsor
Project
Period
Budget (USD)
Role / Contribution
NAVER Corporation
Fundamental therapeutic strategy for immune-mediated diseases using engineered Tregs (PB20X_Treg)
2023
~$128,000
Proposal & study design (~50%)
Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF)
Evaluation of drug efficacy and discovery of pharmacodynamic biomarkers of a new anti-CD40 antibody lead compound (PB101) for the treatment of pemphigus vulgaris
2022–2024
~$321,000
Lead proposal writer (>90% of proposal & execution)
Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS)
Scale-up Funding for Tech Commercialization
2022–2023
~$222,000
Lead proposal writer; managed >90% of execution
Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF)
Lead selection and optimization of a therapeutic anti-CD40 antibody for the treatment of multiple sclerosis
2021–2023
~$571,000
Lead proposal writer (>90% of proposal & execution)
Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) — Bio & Medical Technology Development Program
Establishing a meta-platform for discovering molecular targets by building a multi-layered immune-disease single-cell map (A9-22-1-05; SCAID — Single-cell Atlas for Immunological Disease)
2022–2028 (3+3)
~$1.6M
Participated in proposal writing (>30%)
Ministry of Education (MOE) & Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT)
Laboratory-Specialized Tech-Transfer & R&BD Grant
2020–2021
~$40,000
Grant writing, experimental design & technical validation
All grants were held by the institutional Principal Investigator (Ph.D. advisor at SNU; company CEO/CSO at PB Immune Therapeutics); the listed roles reflect the applicant's contribution to proposal writing and project execution — not as PI. Budgets converted at ≈ ₩1,400 / USD.
Inferring cellular identity from incomplete, high-dimensional data. Cell-type calling under ambiguity, isoform/transcript resolution from short reads, self-supervised and embedding representations of cells; directly motivated by inferring cell type from truncated neurites in connectomes.
Multi-modal integration connecting molecular identity to structure. Transcriptome + chromatin + spatial + proteome, and going forward connectomic structure, into cell-type-resolved models.
Cell-type-specific interaction and connectivity statistics. Ligand–receptor cross-talk, neighborhood/graph statistics, and clonal/repertoire structure as a route from cellular catalogs to circuit/tissue function.
Building and checking computational analysis paths. Custom callers, reproducible end-to-end analysis code, and comparison methods against domain ground truth, rather than only running standard tools.
Atlas-scale, structure-to-function modeling across species. Large multi-donor atlases (SCAID) and NHP-to-human translation, growing into generative, connectome-constrained circuit models.
Immunosuppression Composition Comprising JAK Inhibitor.Patent No. 1020143490000 (registered 2019-08-20).
Awards
2024
Grand Prize, 2024 GPTers AI Hackathon (Project GAIA Team)
2023
Grand Prize, SBA Smart Workathon (Work Process Innovation)
2017
Best Poster Award, American Transplant Congress, Chicago · Best Presentation Award, Korean Association of Immunologists
Scholarships
2014–2020
NRF Research Scholarship for Ph.D. Candidates · Dean's Lecture & Research Support Scholarship, SNU College of Medicine · BK21 Plus Research Scholarship
Selected Presentations
Poster
KAI Annual Meeting, Incheon (2022) · Cytokine, Hawaii (2022) · American Transplant Congress, Chicago (2017) · The Transplantation Society, Hong Kong (2016) · IPITA/IXA/CTS, Melbourne (2015) · TREG, Shanghai (2012)
References
Chung-Gyu Park, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Microbiology & Immunology / Biomedical Sciences, SNU College of Medicine; CEO/CSO, PB Immune Therapeutics · chgpark@snu.ac.kr
Ph.D. advisor.
Hyun Je Kim, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Microbiology & Immunology / Biomedical Sciences; Interdisciplinary Program in Artificial Intelligence (IPAI), SNU · tte9801@snu.ac.kr
Co-corresponding on PDE4D & mfAD studies — computational / single-cell.
Seung-Kuy Cha, Ph.D.
Professor, Dept. of Physiology & Global Medical Science, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine · skcha@yonsei.ac.kr
Most recent research supervisor (2025–2026).
Jeong Seok Lee, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Graduate School of Medical Science & Engineering, KAIST, Daejeon · chemami@kaist.ac.kr