Dr. Cuajungco is a Neuroscientist who earned his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He worked very productively on zinc metabolism and toxicity in the brain. As a pre-doctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School, he pursued a link between metal toxicity and Alzheimer’s disease. He then undertook post-doctoral work at Harvard, and acquired molecular biology expertise in studying a rare sensory neuropathy known as familial dysautonomia. His work evolved to problems in the sensory system and joined another Harvard laboratory to study molecules and nerve cells involved in hearing. The lab subsequently moved to Stanford School of Medicine, and his project led to his current interest in a family of membrane channels known as the Transient Receptor Potential (TRP) ion channels. The TRP ion channels mediate cell response to sensory stimuli such as taste, sight, sound, pain, or temperature. Their dysfunction results in many human diseases. He currently works on TRP Mucolipin (TRPML) in the context of Mucolipidosis type IV. He also focuses on zinc transporters, particularly the recently known Transmembrane 163 (TMEM163) protein.