Kenichiro Nagahama is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Health Science and Technology (HST) and Department of Biomedical engineering (BME) at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST).

He completed his postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Hyungbae Kwon in the Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. During this period, he focused on developing novel genetic tools to visualize neuronal substrates at high spatiotemporal resolution in behaving mice. These include soma-targeted Cal-Light, a system for activity-dependent labeling of neurons (Hyun*, Nagahama* et al., Nat. Commun., 2022), and SynapShot, a reversible probe for synaptic dynamics (Son*, Nagahama* et al., Nat. Methods, 2024).

Kenichiro earned his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo under the supervision of Dr. Masanobu Kano. His doctoral research involved generating and characterizing a mutant mouse line for the schizophrenia-related gene Setd1a (Nagahama et al., Cell Rep., 2020; Nagahama*#, Fujino* et al., STAR Protoc., 2021). Through this work, he uncovered synaptic mechanisms and epigenomic alterations underlying schizophrenia-related behavioral abnormalities, including social dysfunction.

Before pursuing his Ph.D., Kenichiro received his M.D. from Nippon Medical School (NMS) and completed clinical training as a physician at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Japan. He also conducted behavioral experiments in the Department of Pharmacology and performed fMRI data analysis in the Department of Neuropsychiatry at NMS.

Outside the lab, Kenichiro enjoys exploring new restaurants, and nice foods and beer.

Sansung is a Ph.D. student developing molecular tools to investigate diverse cells involved in mouse behavior. 

He engineers protein constructs through simulated evolution and AI-assisted computational redesign, aiming to uncover the functional circuitry—spanning neurons and non-neuronal cells, from the periphery to the brain—underlying how individuals sense others' distress and decide to help. 

Outside the lab, he loves buying new books to satisfy his intellectual vanity📚, brewing coffee to forget that he probably won't sleep well anyway☕️, and wandering around campus for no particular reason☺️