Seung Jin (James) Jang

Entered Combined-Degree Program: Summer 2017 as entering DMD student in the optional DMD Summer Research Program.

Biography:

James was born in South Korea, but grew up in Gainesville, Florida. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Florida where he majored in Interdisciplinary Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Prior to joining the DMD/PhD program at UF, he worked in multiple laboratories at the National Institutes of Health. When he was at NIH, he regularly attended NIDCR rounds to observe both basic and clinical studies presented by dentist scientists. Interactions with these investigators strengthened his desire to pursue the academic career in dentistry. While not working in the lab, he served as the president of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul at his Catholic Church. Every fifth Saturday of the year, he and his friends from the church and NIH served lunch meals to over one hundred homeless people and provided dental supplies to homeless shelters in Washington D.C.

After NIH, he joined Dr. Zsolt Toth’s laboratory at the University of Florida Department of Oral Biology as a research assistant. Dr. Toth had just moved to UF, and James helped set up the laboratory and established several methods to study Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), such as the homolog recombination system to make mutant and recombinant KSHV clones. This was a valuable experience for him, as he learned from the challenges of opening a basic science laboratory. In summer 2017, he was accepted into the DMD-PhD program at the University of Florida College of Dentistry.

While attending dental school, he continued working in Dr. Toth’s laboratory and was able to publish three abstracts and two papers as a co-first author and a co-author in virology journals. He also wrote a UFCD Student Seed Grant Application. The project the seed grant supported was the foundation for his current project and his NIH F30 application. In 2021, he was awarded UFCD High Research Honors Award and his NIH F30 application was selected for funding. He is currently doing his PhD study in Dr. Toth’s research group where he investigates the role of a unique group of KSHV genes, called viral interferon regulatory factors (vIRFs), in both viral replication and pathogenesis. This study is supported by his NIH F30 predoctoral fellowship. In addition to dental education and dissertation research, he has been actively involved with the AADOCR National Student Research Group. He served as the President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Historian of the UFCD Local Student Research Group (UF SRG) and he also served as the regional representative, Councilor, and currently as the President-elect of the National Student Research Group (NSRG). Through UF SRG, he strengthened the bridge between the UFCD dental students and the UF dental research faculty members by organizing multiple lunch and learn, dinner and learn events, and other meetings by working with various departments in UF College of Dentistry. Currently, while serving as the President of NSRG, he strengthens the network of dual degree students and dental academicians in the United States and Canada by organizing AADOCR/IADR conference sessions, networking events, workshops, research competitions and Zoom Q/A sessions. Through these activities, he aims to encourage dual degree students continue to pursue academic, research career paths.

During his free time, he enjoys scuba diving in Florida springs and beaches, as well as camping and hiking in the Georgia mountains.