Massachusetts General Hospital

BiographyDr Shin was born in Seoul, Korea, and grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. He attended Harvard College before returning to the University of Alabama School of Medicine to matriculate in the Medical Scientist Training Program. After graduating with both the MD and PhD degrees, he returned to Boston for clinical and research training at the MGH before joining the staff.

Research

My research focuses on using the zebrafish as a platform for probing in vivo biological questions to better understand the role of gene regulation, signaling and biology in cardiovascular development and disease. This effort consists of three main avenues of investigation. First, we are actively investigating BMPR2, a gene involved in the human genetic disease pulmonary arterial hypertension. We have cloned the zebrafish version of this gene and shown that loss of this gene results in developmental defects affecting blood vessel and myocardial growth, through unexpected perturbations of Smad and wnt/bcatenin signaling. Detailed studies of signaling abnormalities provides novel information regarding the molecular defects of pulmonary hypertension. Second, to facilitate the molecular physiologic examination of perturbed gene function, we have developed quantitative high speed microscopic tools to detect subtle changes in cardiac and vascular function and validated the sensitivity of these tools by showing that conservation of zebrafish physiologic function is predicted by conservation of receptors with known cardiovascular function in mammals and man. Third, we have developed in vivo biological tools in the fish to probe gene regulation, and validated these using of bioinformatic techniques to identify evolutionarily conserved sequences acting as transcriptional enhancers. Establishing a systematic approach for understanding how changes in gene expression result in structural and functional changes in the zebrafish provides a platform for examining upstream and downstream molecular events involved in cardiovascular development and disease.

Publications

View my most recent publications at PubMed

MGH joins study of new heart-assist device

MGH Hotline 9.17.10 The MGH recently became the fifth site nationwide to participate in the study of an innovative rotary blood pump for late-stage heart failure patients.