Jieung Baek, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow

It is now established that hippocampal adult neural stem cells (NSCs), critical for learning and memory in mammals, can alter their fate choice in response to mechanical properties. In two-dimensional (2D) culture, soft ECMs promote neurogenesis, whereas stiff ECMs slightly elevate glial differentiation while suppressing neurogenesis. However, 2D cultures do not capture defining properties of three-dimensional (3D) tissues, including mechanics, adhesive geometry, and degradability. Mechanotransduction in 3D is not regulated only by bulk stiffness but is sensitive to other parameters such as physical confinement and the degradability of the matrix. Here, I’m working on the investigation of 3D-specific mechanisms for the mechanoregulative lineage commitment of NSCs. This could yield general biological principles for cellular behaviors in 3D environment and, when applied to NSCs, specific mechanistic insight into neurogenesis.

Education

PhD, MS, and BS, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)