Hee-Sup Shin

Dr. Hee-Sup Shin earned his MD degree from Seoul National University Medical College in 1974 and a PhD from the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Science in 1983.

Since the mid-1990s, Dr. Shin's group has pioneered in molecular genetics to study neural mechanisms underlying behaviors. His primary approach was to generate and characterize mutant mouse lines for genes regulating neuronal Ca2+ levels. Three groups of genes were targeted: diverse voltage-gated Ca2+ channels for Ca2+ entry into cells, several isozymes of phospholipase Cb that induce Ca2+ release from internal stores upon activation of neurotrophin receptors, and Na+/Ca2+ exchangers driving Ca2+ out to restore the resting Ca2+ level.

Beginning in 2010, his research focus has evolved to studying the neurobiology of social behaviors. Significantly, he has established a behavioral paradigm, observational fear (OF), in mice, enabling, for the first time, the study of empathy at the molecular, cellular, and neural circuit levels. This behavioral assay has become a platform for studying the neurobiology of affective empathy in mammals. Recently, his group has extended its study of empathy to positive affect, revealing neural mechanisms fundamentally different from those for observational fear, an example of negative affect empathy.