September 28 (Wed) - 30 (Fri), 2022
Jeju International Convention Center (ICC Jeju)

Satellite Meeting l Tuesday, September 27 - Wednesday, September 28 (2days)

D-Days

Dr. Chung is currently a Professor of the Department of Systems Biology in Yonsei University. He received his Ph. D. from Ohio State University in 1991. During his PhD, he studied the reactivity of eukaryotic topoisomerases on various unusual DNA structures including Z-DNA, triplex DNA, and quadruplex DNA. During his postdoctoral training in Harvard Medical School, he worked on double-stranded RNA virus which can infect Leishmania, a parasitic protozoan. He started running an independent research group in the Department of Systems Biology, Yonsei University in 1993. He started working on the structures and functions of human telomere and telomerase, which is a key enzyme complex for continued cell proliferation in stem cells and cancer cells. Although telomerase has been shown to accumulate in Cajal bodies for association with telomeric chromatin, it is unclear where and how the assembly and trafficking of catalytically active telomerase is regulated in the context of nuclear architecture. Dr. Chung and his group identified for the first time MKRN1 as an E3 ubiquitin ligase for telomerase, demonstrating a regulatory role in telomere length homeostasis. His group also elucidated the telomerase RNA biogenesis, holoenzyme assembly, and intracellular trafficking of telomerase and revealed that the catalytically active holoenzyme is assembled in the dense fibrillar component of the nucleolus during S phase. In parallel, the Chung lab has discovered that nuclear speckle is the nuclear site for telomerase recruitment to telomeres. His group is currently dedicated to the study on the regulatory role of chaperones in nuclear transport of telomerase reverse transcriptase.