Faculty

Shinjae Chung, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Neuroscience

Department: Neuroscience

Graduate Group Affiliations

Contact information

Department of Neuroscience
Chronobiology and Sleep Institute
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Smilow Center for Translational Research, Room 10-133
3400 Civic Center Blvd. Bldg. 421
Philadelphia, PA 19151

Email:
shinjaec@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Education:
B.S. (Life Sciences and Biotechnology)
Korea University, 2002.
Ph.D. (Pharmacology; Developmental and Cell Biology)
University of California, Irvine, 2008.

Links
Chung Lab Website

Permanent link

> Perelman School of Medicine > Faculty > Details

Description of Research Expertise

Research interests
Neural circuits for sleep and emotional brain function

Key words
Sleep, neuropsychiatric diseases, hypothalamus, stress, neurodevelopmental disorders

Research techniques
Optogenetics, deep brain calcium imaging, in vivo physiology, gene profiling, virus-mediated circuit mapping, sleep recording

Research summary
The goal of our lab is to identify the molecular and neural mechanisms controlling sleep, and to understand how these are interconnected with the neural circuits regulating emotional states in health and disease. To accomplish this, we employ a multi-disciplinary approach including optogenetics, in vivo electrophysiology, imaging, virus-mediated circuit mapping and gene profiling.

Selected Publications

Wiest A, Maurer JJ, Beier KT, Weber F, Chung S: A hypothalamic circuit mechanism underlying the impact of stress on memory and sleep. Journal of Neuroscience 45(27): e2146242025, July 2025.

Choi A, Kim B, Labriola E, Wiest A, Wang Y, Smith J, Shin H,Jin X, An I, Hong J, Antila H, Thomas S, Bhattarai JP, Beier KT, Ma M, Weber F, and Chung S. : Circuit mechanism underlying fragmented sleep and memory deficits in 16p11.2 deletion mouse model of autism. iScience 27(12): 111285, Dec 2024.

Smith J, Honig-Frand A, Antila H, Beier K, Weber F, Chung S. : Regulation of stress-induced sleep fragmentation by preoptic glutamatergic neurons. Current Biology 34(1): 12-23, Jan 2024.

Maurer J, Lin A, Jin X, Hong J, Sathi N, Cardis R, Osorio-Forero A, Lüthi A, Weber, F, Chung S. : Homeostatic regulation of REM sleep by the preoptic area of the hypothalamus. eLife 12: RP92095, Jun 2024.

Hong J, Lozano DE, Beier KT, Chung S, Weber F: Prefrontal cortical regulation of REM sleep. Nature Neuroscience 26(10): 1820-1832, Oct 2023.

Antila H, Kwak I, Choi A, Pisciotti A, Covarrubias I, Baik J, Eisch A, Beier K, Thomas S, Weber F, Chung S. : A noradrenergic-hypothalamic neural substrate for stress-induced sleep disturbances. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119(45): e2123528119, Nov 2022.

Stucynski JA, Schott AL, Baik J, Chung S, Weber F: Regulation of REM sleep by inhibitory neurons in the dorsomedial medulla. Current Biology 32(1): 37-50, Jan 2022.

Chung S, Weber F, Zhong P, Tan CL, Nguyen TN, Beier KT, Hörmann N, Chang WC, Zhang Z, Do JP, Yao S, Krashes MJ, Tasic B, Cetin A, Zeng H, Knight ZA, Luo L, Dan Y. : Identification of preoptic sleep neurons using retrograde labelling and gene profiling. Nature 545: 477–481, May 2017.

Xu M, Chung S, Zhang S, Zhong P, Ma C, Chang WC, Weissbourd B, Sakai N, Luo L, Nishino S, Dan Y: Basal forebrain circuit for sleep-wake control. Nature Neuroscience 18(11): 1641-7, Nov 2015 Notes: Xu and Chung are co-first author.

Weber F, Chung S, Beier KT, Xu M, Luo L, Dan Y: Control of REM sleep by ventral medulla GABAergic neurons. Nature 526(7573): 435-8, Oct 2015.

Chung S, Liao XH, Di Cosmo C, Van Sande J, Wang Z, Refetoff S, Civelli O: Disruption of the melanin-concentrating hormone receptor 1 (MCH1R) affects thyroid function. Endocrinology 153(12): 6145-54, Dec 2012.

Chung S, Hopf FW, Nagasaki H, Li CY, Belluzzi JD, Bonci A, Civelli O: The melanin-concentrating hormone system modulates cocaine reward. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 106(16): 6772-7, Apr 2009.

Nagasaki H, Chung S, Dooley CT, Wang Z, Li C, Saito Y, Clark SD, Houghten RA, Civelli O: The pharmacological properties of a novel MCH1 receptor antagonist isolated from combinatorial libraries. European Journal of Pharmacology 602(2-3): 194-202, Jan 2009 Notes: Nagasaki and Chung are co-first author.

Chung S, Pohl S, Zeng J, Civelli O, Reinscheid RK: Endogenous orphanin FQ/nociceptin is involved in the development of morphine tolerance. The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 318(1): 262-7, Jul 2006.