Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Professor Young Seok Ju's research lab specializes in cancer genomics and mitochondrial biology, focusing on the identification and functional characterization of somatic mutations in both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA across various cancers. The lab employs advanced genomics technologies—such as whole-genome and whole-transcriptome sequencing—to uncover the molecular mechanisms underlying tumorigenesis, particularly in lung cancer and rare cancer subtypes. A key focus is understanding the origins and consequences of mitochondrial DNA mutations, including mitochondrial-nuclear genome fusions, and their roles in cancer progression and pathogenesis. The lab also develops computational tools, like Mutalisk, to decode mutational signatures in the context of genomic, transcriptional, and epigenomic landscapes.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Recent sequencing studies have extensively explored the somatic alterations present in the nuclear genomes of cancers. Although mitochondria control energy metabolism and apoptosis, the origins and impact of cancer-associated mutations in mtDNA are unclear. In this study, we analyzed somatic alterations in mtDNA from 1675 tumors. We identified 1907 somatic substitutions, which exhibited dramatic replicative strand bias, predominantly C > T and A > G on the mitochondrial heavy strand. This strand
The identification of the molecular events that drive cancer transformation is essential to the development of targeted agents that improve the clinical outcome of lung cancer. Many studies have reported genomic driver mutations in non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) over the past decade; however, the molecular pathogenesis of >40% of NSCLCs is still unknown. To identify new molecular targets in NSCLCs, we performed the combined analysis of massively parallel whole-genome and transcriptome sequ
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is the cause of a present pandemic, infects human lung alveolar type 2 (hAT2) cells. Characterizing pathogenesis is crucial for developing vaccines and therapeutics. However, the lack of models mirroring the cellular physiology and pathology of hAT2 cells limits the study. Here, we develop a feeder-free, long-term, three-dimensional (3D) culture technique for hAT2 cells derived from primary human lung tissue and investigate infe
Mitochondrial genomes are separated from the nuclear genome for most of the cell cycle by the nuclear double membrane, intervening cytoplasm, and the mitochondrial double membrane. Despite these physical barriers, we show that somatically acquired mitochondrial-nuclear genome fusion sequences are present in cancer cells. Most occur in conjunction with intranuclear genomic rearrangements, and the features of the fusion fragments indicate that nonhomologous end joining and/or replication-dependent
Somatic genome mutations occur due to combinations of various intrinsic/extrinsic mutational processes and DNA repair mechanisms. Different molecular processes frequently generate different signatures of somatic mutations in their own favored contexts. As a result, the regional somatic mutation rate is dependent on the local DNA sequence, the DNA replication/RNA transcription dynamics and epigenomic chromatin organization landscape in the genome. Here, we propose an online computational framewor
Taken together, our findings suggest that a single catastrophic event in proliferating normal cells could be sufficient for neoplastic transformation into NMCs.
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