Biography

Jinhee Choi is interested in understanding the molecular mechanism of environmental chemicals-induced toxicity for protection of human and ecosystem health. She did her PhD in Eco-toxicology Lab of University of Paris-Sud (XI), Orsay, France.During her PhD, she conducted multi-bio-marker research in various lab and field scale eco-toxicology projects and identified oxidative stress bio-markers due to chemical exposure in freshwater invertebrates. After her PhD, she did postdoctoral fellowship in Seoul National University, Medical school. While then she investigated DNA repair mechanism due to oxidative DNA damage in various in-vitro and in-vivo and human biopsy samples. Her PhD and postdoctoral experiences were quite different yet both productive and interlinked and were served as a background for her interdisciplinary research in environmental toxicology.When she established her own lab in University of Seoul, School of Environmental Engineering in 2002, she tried to incorporate her multidisciplinary experiences using different model systems. Her interest lies in systemic understanding of molecular mechanism of toxicity due to environmental chemicals exposure. For this, she applies multi-OMICS and systems toxicology technologies,which provide unbiased novel information on chemical toxicity and help to develop mechanistic model for toxicity prediction. The ultimate goal of her research is to bridge the gap between mechanistic toxicological research and the development of useful tools for risk assessment. To this end, she leads a research project on development of adverse outcome pathway (AOP) of inhalation toxicity under OECD program. On the other hand, she is also interested in epigenetic mechanism in environmental chemicals -induced toxicity and human disease development. She conducts environmental epigenetics project also in eco-toxicological contexts, by investigating multi- and trans-generational effect of chronic exposure of chemicals in invertebrates. She has been used various model organisms in human toxicology as well as eco-toxicology contexts and thus her interest naturally lies in cross-species extrapolation of the conserved toxic mechanism. She has been investigated toxicity from various environmental chemicals, with special attention on nano-material’s toxicity. However, as her stressors of interests go beyond chemicals, she recently investigates combined effect of chemicals exposure with physical or biological agents, such as, temperature or microbiome. She is a full professor of School of Environmental Engineering in University of Seoul.

Research Interests

1. Understanding molecular mechanism of toxicity of environmental chemicals using multi-OMICS and systems toxicology approach
2. Development of toxicity prediction model based on toxicity big data and machine learning approach
3. Development of Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) for environmental chemicals toxicity screening
4. Understanding epigenetic mechanism in environmental chemicals-induced toxicity and disease development using multi-models
5. Understanding mechanism of environmental pollution-induced epigenetic and evolutionary changes in eco-toxicologically relevant species

Research Keywords

Systems Toxicology, Computational Toxicology, Nanotoxicology, Ecotoxicology, Environmental Epigenetics, Adverse Outcome Pathway, High Throughput Screening, Multi-OMICS

Educations

1998	University of Paris-Sud (XI), France	PhD in Environmental Toxicology
1993	Seoul National University, Republic of Korea	MS in Environmental Planning
1991	Seoul National University, Republic of Korea	BS in Biology

Ph.D Thesis : Étude des effets biochimiques et écophysiologiques du bichromate de potassium et du fénitrothion sue Chironomus riparius (Meigen) (Diptères, Chironomidae) en vue de l`identification expérimentale de biomarqueurs.

Ph.D Thesis supervisor : Prof. François Ramade, University of Paris-Sud (XI), France

Professional Experience

2002-	Assistant, Associate, Full Professor, School of Environmental Engineering, University of Seoul
2010-2011	Visiting Professor, Nicolas School of Environment, Duke University, USA
1999-2002	Post-doc Fellow, Seoul National University, Medical School

Service in Academic Societies

Service for Governmental Agencies

2019-2020		Korean Presidential Adversary Council on Science and Technology, Member  대통령직속 국가과학기술 자문회의 자문위원
2018-2020		Korean National Research Foundation, ICT and Convergence Research, Review Board  한국연구재단 기초연구본부 ICT융합연구단 전문위원
2019-2022		Korean Ministry of Environment, Biocide Council Member  환경부 생활화학제품 및 살생물제 관리워원회 위원
2018		The Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies, Member  과학기술총연합회 국민생활과학기술지원센터 운영위원
2017		Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Korea National Toxicology Program (KNTP), Member  독성시험평가 전문위원회 (KNTP) (식약처), 위원
2016		Korean Ministry of Environment, Committee for the Safety of household products, Member  생활화학제품 안전성 검증위원회 (환경부), 검증위원
2015-2016		Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Research Fellow board member  식품안전정책위원회, 화학물질분야 (식약처), 전문위원
2015		Committee for Off-site Risk Assessment and Risk Management Plan, Member  장외영향평가서 위해관리계획 위원회 (화학물질안전원), 검토위원
2009-2010		Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Mine Reclamation Corp.  한국광해관리공단 (산업통상자원부), 비상임이사

Awards & Prizes