Won-Suk Chung
Neuroscientist who studies how glial cells (astrocytes and microglia) shape synapses, and senior author of the 2026 study linking neuronal ERBB4 and mTOR signaling to early Alzheimer's disease changes in mice
Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, KAIST · Associate Director, Center for Vascular Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS)
Portrait: Cure Alzheimer's Fund
Won-Suk Chung is an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at KAIST and associate director of the Center for Vascular Research at the Institute for Basic Science, both in Daejeon, South Korea. His group's website is named for glia, the support cells of the brain.
In the 2026 Nature paper, the team followed Alzheimer's disease in mice. They found that astrocytes and microglia clear away excitatory synapses while sparing inhibitory ones. Single-nucleus RNA sequencing then showed a group of excitatory neurons that switch on an unusual gene, Erbb4, very early in the disease.
Deleting Erbb4 in these neurons prevented synapse loss, gliosis, amyloid plaques and memory problems in AD mice, while adding Erbb4 to healthy mouse neurons reproduced most of those changes, except plaques. The authors report that these effects needed mTOR signaling downstream of ERBB4. All of this is in mice, with supporting analysis of human transcriptomic data.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | A | Aberrant excitatory neuronal ERBB4 promotes Alzheimer's disease pathology LEE2026 Showed in AD mouse models that ectopic excitatory-neuron ERBB4, acting through mTOR signaling, is necessary and sufficient for early synapse loss, gliosis and cognitive deficits; Chung is the senior and corresponding author. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 3
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Won-Suk Chung.
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- Eunjoon Kim Neuroscientist who directs the IBS Center for Synaptic Brain Dysfunctions and studies synaptic scaffold proteins linked to autism; he contributed to work linking neuronal ERBB4 and mTOR signalling to Alzheimer's pathology
- Se Young Lee Neuroscientist in Won-Suk Chung's group at KAIST and the Institute for Basic Science who studies how neurons, astrocytes and immune cells interact in Alzheimer's disease, and first author of the 2026 Nature study on ERBB4 in excitatory neurons
- Seongbin Kim Contributed to a 2026 study showing that abnormal ERBB4 in excitatory neurons drives Alzheimer's pathology through mTOR signalling
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