Hong is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, Institute for Genomic Biology and Cancer Center of Illinois.  She received her Ph. D. in Biophysics with Prof. Peter Moore at Yale University in 2007 and completed her postdoctoral training under the NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award with Sir Venki Ramakrishnan (Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 2009) at the Medical Research Council – Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the United Kingdom in 2012.  She joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign at the end of 2012 and has made several key discoveries in the fundamental science of molecular biology with her team.  The Jin lab studies RNA structures and functions, mechanisms of protein synthesis and quality control using a combination of cell-based assays, in vitro biochemistry, and structural biology approaches including the single-particle electron cryo-microscopy (cryoEM) with the latest sample preparation and data processing techniques.

Curious why Dr. Jin chose to be a faculty member in one of the top research universities?  This is her answer: “I want to discover secrets of life and to define them at the molecular level.  For example, how do cells regulate their fate? how is the perception formed? where is the memory from?  I also want to help each and everyone in my team to reach their natural best through this journey.”

“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”   ––Friedrich Nietzsche