Biography
Dr. Jung received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Korea, Korea in 1977 and his Ph.D. degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1987. He moved to the Division of Nuclear Medicine in the same university as a Research Fellow for radiochemistry, and joined the faculty in 1990.
Areas of Interest
My primary research has been on synthesis and bio-evaluation of radiolabeled tracers for mapping regional sympathetic nerve density in mammalian heart by Positron Emission Tomography (PET). The long-range goal is to develop tracers to quantitatively assess cardiac nerve damage in heart diseases such as diabetic neuropathy, congestive heart failure and myocardial infarction. Much of my work has been recently focused on further characterization of [11C] and [18F]-labeled phenethylguanidines for PET imaging applications in nuclear cardiology and in the detection of adrenergic tumors (neuroblastoma, pheochromocytoma).
As an organic chemist and radiochemist, I am also interested in design and synthesis of PET and SPECT radioligands for neurological diseases such as brain cholinergic nerve mapping in Alzheimer’s disease and GABA/dopaminergic nerve mapping in psychiatric and neurological conditions.
