Biological Chemistry Professor Named a 2024 Pew Scholar

Cholsoon Jang, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Biological Chemistry at UC Irvine School of Medicine, has been named a 2024 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences.

In June, the Pew Charitable Trusts announced 22 researchers who have been selected to join the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences. These early-career scientists will receive four years of funding to explore some of the most pressing questions in human health and medicine.

Jang will explore how organs communicate with each other to maintain metabolic health as a uniform entity — and what happens when these regulatory processes go awry. 

“Many diseases target a specific organ: Cardiovascular disease (CVD), for example, mostly damages the heart,” Jang explains in his research description on Pew’s website. “But other organs should not be overlooked; for example, the liver, intestine and fat tissues regulate circulating cholesterol and vascular inflammation, key contributors to CVD.” In his research, Jang’s goal is to uncover novel targets for therapeutic interventions that mitigate the progression of CVD.

The Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences provides funding to young investigators of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of human health. The program makes grants to selected academic institutions to support the independent research of outstanding individuals who are in their first few years of their appointment at the assistant professor level.