Se Hoon Choi

Dr. Choi is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS). He has been exploring pathogenic mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and the role of adult-generated neurons, adult hippocampal neurogenesis (AHN), in the disease.

Previously, Dr. Choi got his PhD in Neurobiology from University of Chicago. Mentored by Dr. Sangram Sisodia, he found that the expression of Familial Alzheimer’s disease (FAD)-linked presenilin 1 (PSEN1) variants regulates adult hippocampal neurogenesis (Choi et al., Neuron 2008). During his postdoctoral research training in the laboratory of Dr. Rudolph Tanzi at MGH and HMS, his research found that inducing AHN alone did not improve cognition in AD mice, whereas inducing neurogenesis while simultaneously ameliorating the neuronal environment via exercise did (Choi et al., Science 2018). Using genetic or pharmacological treatments that simultaneously induced neurogenesis and increased levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mimicked the benefits of exercise on cognition.

His research also led to the development of a human stem cell culture model of AD by cultivating genetically modified human neural stem cells in a three-dimensional (3D) cell culture system. The 3D culture system successfully recapitulates key events of AD pathology including amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles for the first time (Choi et al., Nature 2014). In collaboration with Dr. Roger Kamm at MIT, he also contributed to developing a 3D culture system with an intact vascular wall in a 3D microfluidic platform to study direct effects of the AD pathological microenvironment on brain endothelial cells, a major component of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) (Shin et al., Advanced Science 2019).

Dr. Choi’s current research projects include exploration AHN as a potential therapeutic target for improving cognitive function and promoting synaptic resilience in AD, studying the effects of exercise on AD pathogenesis, developing most physiological relevant 3D BBB models in collaboration with Dr. Roger Kamm (MIT), and studying effects of exercise hormone, irisin, on AD pathogenesis in collaboration with Dr. Christiane Wrann (MGH).

Companies

• Assistant Professor Harvard Medical School (2016)
• Instructor Harvard Medical School (2015 — 2016)
• Assistant in Neuroscience Massachusetts General Hospital (2015 — 2016)
• Research Fellow Massachusetts General Hospital (2010 — 2014)

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) The University of Chicago
• Master's Degree Seoul National University
• Bachelor's Degree Sungkyunkwan University