Welcome to C-lab!

The goal of the Chung Lab is to uncover the synaptic mechanisms through which emotional and social behaviors are regulated, and to understand mood disorders at the level of neural circuits and synapses. By pursuing a mechanistic framework for psychiatric conditions, we aim to provide conceptual foundations that may inform the development of more effective clinical interventions.

To achieve this, the Chung Lab adopts a multidisciplinary approach centered on electrophysiology and behavioral analyses. These core methodologies are complemented by genetic and pharmacological manipulations, molecular and cellular analyses, viral gene delivery, and recently developed optogenetic approaches, allowing us to interrogate emotional and mental disorders across multiple levels of biological organization.

Research Interests

• Pathophysiology of stress and stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders

• Synaptic and circuit mechanisms underlying depression, with a focus on the lateral habenula

• Neural mechanisms of brain dysfunction in animal models of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including FKBP5-deficient mice and models with selective impairment in fear memory extinction

• Synaptic mechanisms underlying social deficits in various animal models of autism spectrum disorders

• Mechanisms of cognitive function and hippocampal synaptic plasticity, and synaptic dysfunction in animal models of neurodegenerative diseases

• Fundamental mechanisms of synaptic transmission, including synaptic vesicle release, retrieval, recycling, and postsynaptic receptor function, and their functional significance

Department of Biological Sciences
Konkuk University
(Bldg #14, Rm 518-1)
120 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu,
Seoul, 05029, Korea