Seok-Byung Lim, Soobok Joe, Hyo-Ju Kim, Jong Lyul Lee, In Ja Park, Yong Sik Yoon, Chan Wook Kim, Jong-Hwan Kim, Sangok Kim, Jin-Young Lee, Hyeran Shim, Hoang Bao Khanh Chu, Sheehyun Cho, Jisun Kang, Si-Cho Kim, Hong Seok Lee, Young-Joon Kim, Seon-Young Kim & Chang Sik Yu. BMB Reports 2023;56:569-74. https://doi.org/10.5483/BMBRep.2023-0106

In this study, we investigated the nutritional and functional constituents as well as quality characteristics and antioxidant activity of Korean cultivated wild ginseng (KG). The chemical compositions

Soobok Joe, Jinyong Kim, Jin-Young Lee, Jongbum Jeon, Iksu Byeon, Sae-Won Han, Seung-Bum Ryoo, Kyu Joo Park, Sang-Hyun Song, Sheehyun Cho, Hyeran Shim, Hoang Bao Khanh Chu, Jisun Kang, Hong Seok Lee, DongWoo Kim, Young-Joon Kim, Tae-You Kim & Seon-Young Kim. BMB Reports -0001;0:. https://doi.org/10.5483/BMBRep.2023-0096

Jin-Young Lee, Won Park, Hyunjoong Kim, Hong Seok Lee, Tae-Wook Kang, Dong-Hun Shin, Kyung Su Kim, Yoon Kyeong Lee, Seon-Young Kim, Ji Hwan Park & Young-Joon Kim. BMB Reports -0001;0:. https://doi.org/10.5483/BMBRep.2023-0155

Given the difficulties of obtaining diseased cells, differentiation of neurons from patient-specific human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with neural progenitor cells (NPCs) as intermediate precursors is of great interest. While cellular and transcriptomic changes during the differentiation process have been tracked, little attention has been given to examining spatial re-organization, which has been revealed to control gene regulation in various cells. To address the regulatory mechanism by 3D chromatin structure during neuronal differentiation, we examined the changes that take place during differentiation process using two cell types that are highly valued in the study of neurodegenerative disease - iPSCs and NPCs. In our study, we used Hi-C, a derivative of chromosome conformation capture that enables unbiased, genome-wide analysis of interaction frequencies in chromatin. We showed that while topologically associated domains remained mostly the same during differentiation, the presence of differential interacting regions in both cell types suggested that spatial organization affects gene regulation of both pluripotency maintenance and neuroectodermal differentiation. Moreover, closer analysis of promoter–promoter pairs suggested that cell fate specification is under the control of cis-regulatory elements. Our results are thus a resourceful addition in benchmarking differentiation protocols and also provide a greater appreciation of NPCs, the common precursors from which required neurons for applications in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and spinal cord injuries are utilized.

Sejoon Lee, Kil-yong Lee, Ji-Hwan Park, Duck-Woo Kim, Heung-Kwon Oh, Seong-Taek Oh, Jongbum Jeon, Dongyoon Lee, Soobok Joe, Hoang Bao Khanh Chu, Jisun Kang, Jin-Young Lee, Sheehyun Cho, Hyeran Shim, Si-Cho Kim, Hong Seok Lee, Young-Joon Kim, Jin Ok Yang, Jaeim Lee & Sung-Bum Kang. BMB Reports 2024;57:161-6. https://doi.org/10.5483/BMBRep.2023-0103