"Aging and Immunity
as Systems"
We study how organisms age and how their immune systems work. Using multi-omics data, including (meta/epi)genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics, we look for patterns that hold from yeast and Arabidopsis to humans.
See MoreBuilding the pipelines that make multi-omics data usable.
Why one disease so often pulls others along with it.
What aging looks like from yeast to humans.
We recruit graduate students — Integrated MS–PhD and PhD.
Join Us arrow_forwardOur work runs along three lines: the computational methods that make multi-omics data usable, the shared mechanisms behind co-occurring immune and rare diseases, and the principles of aging conserved across eukaryotes. The common thread is reading biology at the level of whole systems, across molecules, tissues, and species.
We build the computational methods that turn raw omics data into something you can actually analyze: pipelines for proteomics, transcriptomics, long-read sequencing, spatial, single-cell, and microbiome data, drawing on data repositories like the Korea Nucleotide Archive (KoNA/KNA) under the Korea BioData Station (K-BDS). Network analysis and explainable machine learning bring these layers together while keeping the results interpretable.
Many patients carry more than one diagnosis at once, and we ask how those diseases are connected. Working with rheumatic, degenerative, and rare diseases, as well as cancer, we read omics signatures across tissues to trace the mechanisms they share, with an eye toward diagnostic markers and treatment targets grounded in a patient's own molecular profile.
Aging touches nearly every eukaryote, from single cells to humans. We compare it across yeast, Arabidopsis, rice, C. elegans, fly, mouse, and human to pin down the parts that stayed the same through evolution. What survives across such distant species is likely to be fundamental, and a good place to look for what actually drives aging.
*, represents co-first authors; #, co-corresponding authors.
The highlighted papers indicate the ones listed as first or corresponding author.
Clin Genet.
J Invest Dermatol. 145(9):2327-2330.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.jid.2025.02.133
Nucleic Acids Res. 53(1):gkae1294. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkae1294
Gigascience. 13:giae014. doi: 10.1093/gigascience/giae014
Genomics Proteomics Bioinformatics. 22(1):qzae017. doi: 10.1093/gpbjnl/qzae017
BMB Rep. 57(12):521-526. doi: 10.5483/BMBRep.2023-0155
BMC Genomics. 25(1):318. doi: 10.1186/s12864-024-10239-9
BMB Rep. 57(3):161-166. doi: 10.5483/BMBRep.2023-0103
J Invest Dermatol. 144(3):720-722.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.jid.2023.08.027
Mol Cells. 47(3):100033. doi: 10.1016/j.mocell.2024.100033
J Med Virol. 95(11):e29201. doi: 10.1002/jmv.29201
J Ginseng Res. 47(1):97-105. doi: 10.1016/j.jgr.2022.06.001
Exp Mol Med. 54(8):1236-1249. doi: 10.1038/s12276-022-00836-7
Sci Rep. 12(1):13983. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-17896-4
J Exp Bot. 73(8):2511-2524. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erac050
Exp Mol Med. 53(6):1092-1108. doi: 10.1038/s12276-021-00643-6
Nat Commun. 11(1):2819. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16573-2
J Clin Invest. 126866. doi: 10.1172/JCI126866
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 117(11):6237-6245. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1919722117
Plant Cell Physiol. 59(9):1753-64. doi: 10.1093/pcp/pcy153
Exp Mol Med. 50(8):93. doi: 10.1038/s12276-018-0120-3
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 115(21):E4930-E4939. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1721523115
Gastroenterology 152(8):1998- 2010. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2017.02.016
Clin Exp Metastasis 33(5):417-29. doi: 10.1007/s10585-016-9786-x
Sci Rep. 11(5):18189. doi: 10.1038/srep18189
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 112(47):E6535-43. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1514152112
Journal of Immunology 194 (6):2513-2521. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1402900
Journal of Proteomics 85:174-91. doi: 10.1016/j.jprot.2013.04.004
Yoon JH, Hwang D, Ryu SH, Park S, Park JH. Novel hepatocellular carcinoma diagnostic marker and use thereof. Patent in Republic of Korea, Registration Number: 1021366430000, Jul. 2020.
Lee JS, Kim M, Kim JS, Park JH, Eom MK, Park SH, Lee JH, Kang SW, Um ES, Go HY, Sohn HA. Novel Bifidobacterium strain and composition for preventing, improving or treating fatty liver disease comprising the same. Patent Pending in Republic of Korea, Pending Number: 1020240006925.
How to apply
Email the following to parkjihwan@ajou.ac.kr:
Eligibility
Department of Biological Sciences, Ajou University
206 Worldcup-ro, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do 16499, Republic of Korea
