Nationality Korean Name Hee-Sup Shin | Residence South Korea | |
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Notable awards AFH Lectureship Prize (2004)Ho-Am Prize in Science by Ho-Am Foundation (2004)DuPont Prize (2004)Top Scientist Award by Korean Government (2005) Alma mater | ||
Hee-sup Shin was born in South Korea, in 1950. He is director of the Center for Cognition and Sociality.
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Education
Research
Shin work is aimed at understanding how changes in calcium dynamics in nerve cells regulate brain functions. He has been defining the physiological roles that a group of genes play in vivo, whose functions are known to be critical for regulation of intracellular calcium dynamics.
Shin first generates a transgenic mouse for a given gene, and then analyzes the mouse at the molecular, cellular, physiological, and behavioral levels. Shin has been particularly interested in defining the functions of voltage gated calcium channels in normal as well as pathological states of the brain.
In particular, his work on the mutant mouse for a1G T-type calcium channels has provided conclusive evidence that T-type channels in the thalamus of the brain function to block sensory information derived from the body to be delivered to the cerebral cortex. The thalamus is the gateway through which all the somatic sensory information from the periphery must pass through to reach the cerebral cortex, where perception is achieved. Thus, the T-type channel mutant mouse lacking this block showed an enhanced response to visceral pain.
Shin has also shown that the same mutant mouse was resistant to absence epilepsy, a disease characterized by a brief loss of consciousness accompanied by abnormal EEG findings. Together, these results indicate that the thalamus is the brain center, controlling the state of consciousness by gating the sensory information from the outside world to reach the cortex, and that T-type calcium channels are the key element in this gating function