Rate My Professor Jeeyun Chung

Chung's laboratory addresses fundamental questions in lipid biology, including the regulatory mechanisms of autophagic lipid degradation (lipophagy), lipid trafficking and utilization at inter-organelle membrane contact sites, and the roles of lipophagy in neuronal lipid metabolism and neuropathology. Dysregulation of these pathways is linked to obesity, fatty liver disease, cancer, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and neurodegenerative disorders. Her research employs multidisciplinary approaches, including advanced microscopy, biochemistry, biophysics, and mass spectrometry-based analytics. Key publications include "The Troyer syndrome protein spartin mediates selective autophagy of lipid droplets" (Nature Cell Biology, 2023), "LDAF1 and seipin form a lipid droplet assembly complex" (Developmental Cell, 2019), "PI4P/phosphatidylserine countertransport at ORP5- and ORP8-mediated ER-plasma membrane contacts" (Science, 2015), "Lipid droplet biogenesis" (Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology, 2017), and "Mechanisms of lipid droplet degradation" (Current Opinion in Cell Biology, 2024). Chung has received the Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award in Neuroscience, the Charles H. Hood Foundation Child Health Research Award, and the Star-Friedman Challenge Award for Promising Scientific Research. She teaches MCB 127: Organelle Biology and Cellular Function.