About
Kwanghun Chung is currently an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT, as well as a Core Member of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES). He is also a Core Member of the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Seoul National University in 2005, and then moved to Georgia Institute of Technology for his Ph.D. training under the mentorship of Dr. Hang Lu, where he developed automated and integrated microsystems for high-throughput imaging, molecular/behavioral phenotyping, and cell microsurgery of a broad range of living systems. Following his graduation in 2009, Dr. Chung joined the Karl Deisseroth Lab at Stanford University for post-doctoral training in 2010, where he invented a novel technology termed CLARITY (Chung, Nature, 2013), which enables system-wide structural and molecular analysis of large-scale intact biological samples. In 2013, Dr. Chung joined MIT and has been leading an interdisciplinary team to develop and apply novel methods for holistic understanding of large-scale complex biological systems. His group has developed a host of technologies (SWITCH [Cell, 2015], Stochastic Electrotransport [PNAS, 2015], MAP [Nature Biotechnology, 2016], SHIELD [Nature Biotechnology, 2019], and ELAST [Nature Methods, 2020]) that enable rapid and scalable 3D imaging and phenotyping of both animal models and human clinical samples. He cofounded LifeCanvas Technologies to commercialize his inventions, which has enabled rapid adoption of the technologies by over 300 labs and core facilities in leading institutions, and companies across 14 countries. Chung was the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) 2019, the NIH New Innovator Award 2016, the Mcknight Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Award 2016, the Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering Award 2015, the NARSAD Young Investigator Award 2015, the Yumin Awards for Creativity 2014, the Searle Scholars Award 2014, and the BWF Career Award at the Scientific Interface 2012.
Research
The Chung Lab is an interdisciplinary research team devoted to developing and applying novel technologies (e.g. CLARITY) for integrative and comprehensive understanding of large-scale complex biological systems. Specifically, we develop a host of methods that enable rapid extraction of system-wide structural, molecular, and genomic information from intact tissues. Furthermore, we combine these technologies with physiological and behavioral approaches to study function and dysfunction of mammalian brain as well as other organs. We hope that our developing technique will continue to provide unforeseen opportunities for deeper understanding of biological systems. Our mission is to empower the scientific community by openly sharing research outcomes and offering training courses to broadly and rapidly disseminate our technologies.
Publications
Dheeraj S Roy, Young-Gyun Park, Sachie K Ogawa, Jae H Cho, Heejin Choi, Lee Kamensky, Jared Martin, Kwanghun Chung, Susumu Tonegawa. “Brain-wide mapping of contextual fear memory engram ensembles supports the dispersed engram complex hypothesis”, Nature Communications, 2022, in print
Joha Park, Sarim Khan, Dae Hee Yun, Taeyun Ku, Katherine L. Villa, Jiachen E. Lee, Qiangge Zhang, Juhyuk Park, Guoping Feng, Elly Nedivi , Kwanghun Chung, “Epitope-preserving magnified analysis of proteome (eMAP)”, Science Advances, 2021
Seo Woo Choi, Webster Guan, Kwanghun Chung, “Basic principles of tissue transformation technologies and their applications”, Cell, 2021.
Alexandre Albanese, Justin M. Swaney, Dae Hee Yun, Nicholas B. Evans, Jenna M. Antonucci, Silvia Velasco, Chang Ho Sohn, Paola Arlotta, Lee Gehrke, Kwanghun Chung†, “Multiscale Hyperdimensional Phenotyping of Intact Human Cerebral Organoids”, Scientific Reports, 2020, 10, 21487.
Taeyun Ku, Webster Guan, Nicholas B. Evans, Chang Ho Sohn, Alexandre Albanese, Joon-Goon Kim, Matthew P. Frosch, Kwanghun Chung, “Elasticizing tissues for reversible shape transformation and accelerated molecular labeling”, Nature Methods, 2020, 17, 609-613.
Rebecca G Canter, Wen-Chin Huang, Heejin Choi, Jun Wang, Lauren A. Watson, Christine G. Yao, Fatema Abdurrob, Stephanie M. Bousleiman, Ivana Delalle, Kwanghun Chung, Li-Huei Tsai† "3D Mapping Reveals Network-specific Amyloid Progression and Subcortical Susceptibility", Communications Biology, 2019.
Anthony J. Martorell, Abigail L. Paulson, Ho-Jun Suk, Fatema Abdurrob, Gabi Drummond, Webster Guan, Jennie Z. Young, David Nam-Woo Kim, Oleg Kritskiy, Vamsi Mangena, Stephanie M. Prince, Emery N. Brown, Kwanghun Chung, Edward S. Boyden, Annabelle C. Singer, Li-Huei Tsai. “Multi-sensory gamma stimulation ameliorates Alzheimer’s-associated pathology and improves cognition.”, Cell, 2019, 2,256-271.
Young-Gyun Park, Chang Ho Sohn, Ritchie Chen, Margaret McCue, Gabrielle T. Drummond, Taeyun Ku, Dae Hee Yun, Nicholas B. Evans, Hayeon Caitlyn Oak, Wendy Trieu, Heejin Choi, Xin Jin, Varoth Lilascharoen, Ji Wang, Matthias C. Truttmann, Helena W. Qi, Hidde L. Ploegh, Todd R. Golub, Shih-Chi Chen, Matthew P. Frosch, Heather J. Kulik, ByungKook Lim, Kwanghun Chung, “Protection of tissue physicochemical properties using polyfunctional crosslinkers”, Nature Biotechnology, 2019, doi:nbt.4281, PMC6579717
Taeyun Ku, Justin Swaney, Jeong-Yoon Park, Alexander Albanese, Evan Murray, Jae Hun Cho, Young-Gyun Park, Vamsi Mangena, Jiapei Chen, and Kwanghun Chung. "Multiplexed and scalable super-resolution imaging of three-dimensional protein localization in size-adjustable tissues", Nature Biotechnology, 2016, 34(9), 973-81, PMC5070610
Evan Murray, Jae Hun Cho, Daniel Goodwin, Taeyun Ku, Justin Swaney, Sung-Yon Kim, Heejin Choi, Jeong-Yoon Park, Austin Hubbert, Meg McCue, Young-Gyun Park, Sara Vassallo, Naveed Bakh, Matthew Frosch, Van J. Wedeen, H. Sebastian Seung, and Kwanghun Chung. Simple, scalable proteomic imaging for high-dimensional profiling of intact systems, Cell, Dec 3:163(6): 1500-14. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.11.025. PMC5275966.
Sung-Yon Kim, Jae Hun Cho, Evan Murray, Naveed Bakh, Heejin Choi, Kimberly Ohn, Sara Vassallo, Luzdary Ruelas, Austin Hubbert, Meg McCue, Philipp Keller and Kwanghun Chung. Stochastic electrotransport selectively enhances the transport of highly electromobile molecules, PNAS, 2015 Nov 17: 112(46): E6274-83. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1510133112. Epub 2015 Nov 2. PubMed PMID: 26578787; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4655572.
Kwanghun Chung, Karl Deisseroth*, “CLARITY for mapping the nervous system”, Nature methods, 2013, 10, 508-513 (co-correspondence)
Kwanghun Chung, Jenelle Wallace, Sung-Yon Kim, Sandhiya Kalyanasundaram, Aaron Andalman, Tom J. Davidson, Kelly A. Zalocusky, Joanna Mattis, Sally Pak, Viviana Gradinaru, Hannah Bernstein, Julie Mirzabekov, Charu Ramakrishnan, and Karl Deisseroth, “Structural and molecular interrogation of intact biological systems”, Nature, 2013, 497, 332-337 (This paper was featured in the New York Times and the Guardian)
Kwanghun Chung, Yoosik Kim*, Jitendra S Kanodia, Emily Gong, SY Shvartsman, and Hang Lu, “A microfluidic array for large-scale ordering and orientation of embryos”, Nature Methods, 2011, 8, 171-176 (This paper was selected as a cover article)
Kwanghun Chung, Matthew M. Crane*, Hang Lu, “Automated on-chip rapid microscopy, phenotyping, and sorting of C. elegans”, Nature Methods, 2008, 5, 637-643 (This paper was reviewed in a “News and Views” article in the same issue of Nature Methods and was also featured in the New York Times)