Background
Shin, Hee-Sup was born on July 29, 1950 in Seoul, Republic of Korea. Came to the United States, 1978.
Shin, Hee-Sup was born on July 29, 1950 in Seoul, Republic of Korea. Came to the United States, 1978.
1950 Born in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, of Korea
1974 Doctor of Medicine, College of Medicine, Seoul National University
1983 Doctor of Philosophy in genetics and cell biology,
1985 - 1991 Assistant professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Master of Arts, associate member, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical, Master of Arts
1991 - 2001 Professor, Pohang University of Science and Technology
2001 - present Principal research scientist, of Korea Institute of Science and Technology.
He is director of the Center for Cognition and Sociality. 1950 Born in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, of Korea Shin work is aimed at understanding how changes in calcium dynamics in nerve cells regulate brain functions. He has been defining the physiological roles that a group of genes play in vivo, whose functions are known to be critical for regulation of intracellular calcium dynamics.
Shin first generates a transgenic mouse for a given gene, and then analyzes the mouse at the molecular, cellular, physiological, and behavioral levels.
Shin has been particularly interested in defining the functions of voltage gated calcium channels in normal as well as pathological states of the brain. In particular, his work on the mutant mouse for a1G T-type calcium channels has provided conclusive evidence that T-type channels in the thalamus of the brain function to block sensory information derived from the body to be delivered to the cerebral cortex.
Thus, the T-type channel mutant mouse lacking this block showed an enhanced response to visceral pain. Shin has also shown that the same mutant mouse was resistant to absence epilepsy, a disease characterized by a brief loss of consciousness accompanied by abnormal Electroencephalogram findings.
Together, these results indicate that the thalamus is the brain center, controlling the state of consciousness by gating the sensory information from the outside world to reach the cortex, and that T-type calcium channels are the key element in this gating function.
Member Genetics Society of America.
Married Kun-Wha, March 15, 1978. Children: Ji-Soo, Ji-Yon.