Hee-Sup Shin

Hee-sup Shin (born 1950) is a South Korean neuroscientist whose work focuses on brain research of genetically engineered mice via gene knockout in order to better understand the human brain. His research resulted in him being named a National Scientist by the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology.[2] He is co-director of the Center for Cognition and Sociality leading the Social Neuroscience Group in the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) located at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).[3]

Hee-Sup Shin
Born(1950-07-29)July 29, 1950[1]
Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province
NationalitySouth Korean
Alma materSeoul National University, Cornell University
Known forT-type calcium channels
AwardsAFH Lectureship Prize (2004)
Ho-Am Prize in Science (2004)
DuPont Prize (2004)
National Scientist (2006)
Scientific career
FieldsNeuroscience
InstitutionsKorea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Institute for Basic Science, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Korean name
Hangul
Revised RomanizationSin Hui-seop
McCune–ReischauerSin Hŭisŏp

Education

Shin received his M.D. in immunology from the College of Medicine of Seoul National University in 1974.[4] In 1983, he obtained a Ph.D. in genetics and cell biology from Cornell University. During his Ph.D. studies, he worked for several years as a postdoc in immunology at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research.

Career

Upon graduating from Cornell, Shin worked as a research associate in genetics at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research until 1985. He then moved to Massachusetts where he held a dual position as an associate professor in the Department of Biology at MIT and as an associate member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. In 1991, he returned to Korea to work as an associate professor and later professor in the Department of Life Science in POSTECH where he stayed for a decade. During this time, he also was director of the Biotechnology Research Center in POSTECH and director of the National CRI Center for Calcium and Learning. He was the first researcher within Korea to apply genetics to brain science research and received overseas attention in 1997 upon his discovery of the genes PLC-β1 and PLC-β4, which are related to epilepsy and paralysis.[5]

Leaving POSTECH in 2001, he went to the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) to be a principal research scientist, a position he held for a decade. In 2005, he became the director of KIST's Center for Neural Science and then director-general of their Brain Science Institute. In 2012, he moved to Daejeon to become founding director of the IBS Center for Cognition and Sociality located at KAIST.[6] The center expanded when Changjoon Justin Lee became a co-director of the center in 2018. Lee leads the Cognitive Glioscience Group while Shin led the Social Neuroscience Group[7] until his retirement in 2020.[8][9]

Research

Shin's 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.[10] 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.[11] The thalamus is the gateway through which all the somatic sensory information from the periphery must pass through to reach the cerebral cortex, where perception is achieved. 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 EEG 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.

Honors and awards

References
  1. "신희섭 연구인, 대학교수". Naver 인물검색 (in Korean). Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  2. 박, 세환 (3 February 2007). "뇌과학은 미래 성장동력… 정부 적극 나서야". 세계일보 (in Korean). Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  3. "Center for Cognition and Sociality - Life Sciences - Research Centers". Institute for Basic Science. Retrieved 11 February 2019.
  4. "Full text of "Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences Announcement"". Internet Archieve. Cornell University. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  5. "From advisor and advisee to fellow directors: Exploring the mysteries of the brain". Institute for Basic Science. 15 September 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  6. "Director Dr. Hee-Sup Shin". Center for Cognition and Sociality. Institute for Basic Science. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  7. "Cognitive Glioscience Group". Institute for Basic Science. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  8. 박윤균 (23 December 2020). "`국가과학자 1호` 신희섭박사, 연구현장 떠나". MK 증권 (in Korean). Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  9. 류준영 (23 December 2020). "떠나는 IBS 1호 연구단장 신희섭…국내 최초로 뇌과학에 유전학 도입". MT (in Korean). Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  10. Jeon, Daejong; Shin, Hee‐Sup (1 October 2011). "A Mouse Model for Observational Fear Learning and the Empathetic Response". Current Protocols in Neuroscience. 57 (1): 8.27.1–8.27.9. doi:10.1002/0471142301.ns0827s57. PMID 21971850. S2CID 30356114.
  11. Shin, Hee-sup (13 June 2006). "T-type Ca2+ channels and absence epilepsy". Cell Calcium. 40 (2): 191–196. doi:10.1016/j.ceca.2006.04.023. PMID 16777220.
  12. 임, 도원 (6 April 2004). "[건강한 인생] 통증억제 유전자 발견해 듀폰상 받는 신희섭 박사". Naver (in Korean). 한국경제. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  13. 박, 세인 (14 April 2015). "(1부·⑤) "배고프다고 씨감자 먹어선 안돼.. 경제 어려워도 기초과학 키워야"". 파이낸셜뉴스 (in Korean). Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  14. 윤, 경호 (8 April 2004). "호암상, 신희섭 KIST박사등 4명 선정". Naver (in Korean). 매일경제. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  15. 저, 작권 (31 December 2004). "KIST, 첫 억대연봉자 탄생". Naver (in Korean). 머니투데이. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  16. 27 July 2004. "정부출연硏 우수연구자 KIST 신희섭씨등 포상". Naver (in Korean). 파이낸셜뉴스. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  17. "SHIN Hee-Sup, MD & PhD" (PDF). IBS Symposium. Institute for Basic Science. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  18. 지, 명훈 (24 December 2013). "[대전/충남]UST '스타교수' 첫 선정". The Dong-a Ilbo (in Korean). Retrieved 18 September 2019.
  19. "Hee-Sup Shin Center for Cognition and Sociality, Institute for Basic Science, Korea". The 10th IBRO World Congress of Neuroscience. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  20. "2018 AAAS Fellows approved by the AAAS Council". Science Magazine. 362 (6418): 1010–1013. 30 November 2018. Bibcode:2018Sci...362.1010.. doi:10.1126/science.362.6418.1010.


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