Principal Investigator
Hosung Bae, PhD
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine-Endocrinology and Metabolism
3322 PBDB
169 Newton Road
Iowa City, IA 52242
email: hosung-bae@uiowa.edu
Introduction
- Dr. Hosung Bae's research focuses on how metabolites and metabolic fluxes coordinate communication between organs and how their disruption contributes to human disease. During his Ph.D. at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), under the mentorship of Dr. Gou Young Koh, he investigated vascular and lymphatic biology, uncovering mechanisms that regulate nutrient transport, insulin sensitivity, and lymphoid organ development. His doctoral research also identified the nasal ciliated epithelium as a critical frontline barrier against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
- As a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Cholsoon Jang's laboratory at the University of California, Irvine, Dr. Bae shifted his focus toward metabolism, developing expertise in arteriovenous metabolomics and stable isotope tracing to investigate metabolic flux across organs. His work has revealed how inter-organ metabolic communication is altered in genetic and cardiometabolic diseases, while his studies of nutrient–microbiome interactions have uncovered mechanisms linking dietary metabolism to metabolic disease. He also expanded his expertise in computational and untargeted metabolomics as a visiting researcher in Dr. Pieter Dorrestein's laboratory at UC San Diego.
- Dr. Bae joined the University of Iowa in August 2026 as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, where he leads an independent research program focused on metabolite discovery and biochemical mechanisms of metabolic signaling. His laboratory integrates fluxomics, biochemical characterization, spatial and computational metabolomics, and genetic animal models to define how metabolites regulate cell signaling, coordinate inter-organ communication, and influence disease progression.