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Dr. Sungwhan Oh is a brilliant scientist who is eager to learn, discover, and share his work. He was born and raised in South Korea. He graduated from his undergrad in South Korea with a bachelor’s in chemistry. When he came to the United States he was coming for graduate school, and he was interviewing at Harvard and Stanford. He visited Boston for the first time in 2003. He remembers his first time visiting in a perfectly fashioned good ole New England snowstorm. After his interviews he went back to South Korea and spoke to his family and friends about his big decision to move here. He also spoke to his mentor who did research at US Army Lab in Natick, MA, reminding him that the ‘Fenway Park is very close to the Medical School’. He loves the game of baseball and instantly became a red sox fan after seeing the rivalry against the Yankees in ’03 to the Red Sox winning the world series in ’04.
Growing up in South Korea they always ask what do you want to do in your future? As a kid Dr. Oh began to answer that question for himself in kindergarten. He really liked reading books and as the years passed his reading skewed towards science. He was interested in math and science in school and realized he was good at both. His dad was an engineer, who helped him lean towards the science pathway. In middle school and high school, it was a “smooth and natural trap” to be in the advanced science classes. Middle school is where he took a greater interest in chemistry, which grew into more likes of analytical chemistry, experimental science, nature, quantitative, and mass spectrometry. These subjects sparked his interest into going to grad school. He was able to use his application of knowledge and tools to solve the many problems in biological science. He liked the diversity in Harvard Medical School for his PhD program. In addition to biologists, many of his classmates were mathematicians, computer scientists and chemists. Dr. Oh first became interested in identifying small lipid molecules and characterize their structures and functions, joining Dr. Charlie Serhan’s research group.
Dr. Oh’s graduate study focused on the immune system and self-limit the inflammation. He was interested in the molecule itself and the role it plays in the host system. He was able to work on identifying novel structures and their activity in the inflammation-resolution circuit of the body. After defending his degree and while continuing his research at CETRI, he published papers on the impact of gut microbiota to the lipid mediator production. Interested in microbiome study, Dr. Serhan introduced him to Dr. Dennis Kasper, who is a pioneer in microbiome study at Channing Laboratory, leading to Dr. Oh’s fellowship in the Kasper Lab.
Dr. Oh’s postdoctoral research projects focused on identification of bioactive sphingolipids producted by human gut symbiont and their immunomodulatory functions, supported by Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation and NIDDK. After successful training at the north side of Longwood Ave, Dr. Oh returned to CETRI and the department as a principal investigator in 2018. The training with leaders in diverse fields of science has carried into his lab today, where he synergize expertise of his trainees from chemistry, microbiology and immunology.
His current research involve two classes of lipids from gut symbiotic microbiota. The lipid mediator alpha-galactosylceramide is a molecule that imprints the host immune system at early stages of life, as well as that modulate host mucosal immune responses. His current support from NCCIH focus on the impact of specific host dietary factors (prebiotics) to the production of these lipids which can shape host immune development and disease responses. In addition, molecular mechanism study on how these symbiont-derived metabolites specifically act on the host, regulating unconventional T cell functions was recently award from NIAID.
The other molecule being looked at is the lipid A, which is a lipid polysaccharide an endotoxin. An interesting finding is that this molecule is not limited to the pathogen. Most of the gram-negative bacteria has lipid A as an essential component of their cell membrane, which means your gut residents also have this lipid A molecule. They generate into large quantities everyday in your gut, but you never get the sick if you’re healthy, because your immune system can pick this up and precisely distinguish between the two. Under the support of Department of Defense, his lab is interested in how to categorize, generating a profile of the modification and variation structure of the lipid A and finally how to understand their species-specific functional diversity in the human cells.
Dr. Oh has a few plans he would like to work on in the future. The prime questions the lab is focused on answering is how the host learns from microbiota, at the critical time of development. Host immune system faces rapid and significant changes over early years of life, learning about new molecules and structures and getting educated on what is harmful and what isn’t. Changes and perturbations in microbiota by the change in diet and life events (such as infections and antibiotics use) leaves short and long-term consequences to the host immunity. How the changes in microbiota metabolome impact immune system is his major interest. In addition, he would like to develop tools and methodology for microbiome metabolite studies and continue to work on understanding which metabolites have certain beneficial actions on human. He is excited about collaborations with experts of the field, which open a strong scientific potential to investigate the feasibility of microbiome-based therapies for various human diseases.
Dr. Oh has many publications, honors, and prizes that he is very humble about. One honor and prize that he received was in 1999, where he received a gold medal at the 31st International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO), in Bangkok, Thailand. A more recent honor and prize he received was in 2019, which was the Young Investigator Award from the Eicosanoid Research Foundation. Dr. Oh loves to travel with his wife and daughter. They used to visit South Korea every year meeting up with family and friends. They would also travel to other places around the world for family reunions and over breaks. Dr. Oh plays the violin and played in the orchestra every year before covid. His daughter plays the violin and has her own teacher where as a dad he tries not to intervene. He enjoys music, concerts, and the opera. Dr. Oh is grateful for all the support he has gotten and looks forward to continuing making great strives for the future of science.
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