A Special Interview with Journal Senior Editor - Prof. Sin-Hyeog Im

The Editorial Office of Microbiome Research Reports (MRR) was glad to have a special interview with the journal Senior Editor, Prof. Sin-Hyeog Im, on September 30 about his review article "The gut-immune-brain axis in neurodevelopment and neurological disorders", which was published in MRR on August 17, 2022.

In this review, the authors examine the unique immune populations within the brain, the effects of the gut microbiota on the CNS, and the efficacy of specific probiotic strains to propose the novel concept of the gut-immune-brain axis. The review received much positive feedback on social media and was praised by readers as interesting, informative, and excellent.

The recording of this interview can be found below:
1. What makes the gut-immune-brain axis distinct from the microbiota-gut-brain axis?
2. How to conduct further strain-specific studies of probiotics to identify their psychobiotic efficacies and mechanisms of action?
3. What kind of undiscovered tissue-specific roles that expressing distinct nervous system-related genes such as serotonin receptors and brain Tregs may have within the central nervous system (CNS)?
4. How to understand the correlation of barrier integrity between the intestinal tract and the blood-brain barrier?
5. Do you have any suggestions on the direction of further study in this field?
6. What are the big issues in your research area?

Author's introduction: 

Prof. Sin-Hyeog Im is on the board of directors for the Pharmabiotic Research Institute (PRI), the president of the International Scientific Conference on Probiotics and Prebiotics (IPC), chairman of the organizing committee of FIMSA 2021 (Federation of Immunological Societies of Asia-Oceania). He received his Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute of Science (2001, Rehovot, Israel) and completed postdoctoral training at the Harvard Medical School (2003, Boston, USA). He started his lab as an independent principal investigator at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) (2004-2014, Gwangju, Korea). He received several awards such as CRI Irvington Postdoctoral Fellowships, Cancer Research Institute (2001), Young Investigator Award (The Society of Biological Research (SBR),2003, USA), Top 100 achievements of national R&D (2011, Korean government), Academic Research Awards (2019, Life Science Award, Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology), KAI-Genexine Award (2020 Grand Achievement Awards).

Prof. Im made an outstanding contribution to immunology, particularly to cellular and molecular mechanisms of immune tolerance in health and disease. His research activities cover the followings but not limited to:

(1) Role of transcription factors in immune regulation and tolerance; 
(2) Molecular mechanism of IL-10 gene regulation in immune cells; 
(3) Reprogramming of immune system by rationally selected probiotic bacteria;
(4) Identification of effector molecules and elucidation of the action mechanism of immune-regulatory probiotics;
(5) Development of microbiome therapeutics for allergy, autoimmunity, and cancer. He has published more than 140 scientific papers in high-impact journals such as Cell, Immunity, Science Immunology, Nature Communications, PNAS, etc.

Research Interests: Immune tolerance, Microbiome, Probiotics, Immune disorder, Probiotics, Live Biotherapeutic Products (LBP) 

Respectfully Submitted by the Editorial Office
Microbiome Research Reports