Sangbum Park, PhD

Assistant Professor
Medicine, Pharmacology & Toxicology

Bio

Dr. Sangbum Park is an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. from Seoul National University and completed postdoctoral training at Yale University. His research focuses on understanding the fundamental principles that govern tissue regeneration during homeostasis and wound repair in live mammals. To study these processes, Dr. Park established novel intravital live imaging approaches that enable visualization of cellular behaviors directly in living mice (Pineda* & Park* et al., Nature Protocols, 2015; Park et al., Current Opinion in Cell Biology, 2016). Using these approaches, he visualized individual cells during wound repair and discovered that differentiated epithelial cells, in addition to stem cells, actively migrate and contribute to tissue regeneration (Park et al., Nature Cell Biology, 2017), challenging the long-standing view that stem cells are the sole drivers of tissue repair. More recently, his work revealed how crosstalk between epithelial stem cells and tissue-resident immune cells contributes to maintaining tissue homeostasis in healthy skin (Park & Matte-Martone et al., Nature Cell Biology, 2021). Building on this foundation, the Park laboratory investigates how epithelial–immune cell interactions regulate tissue regeneration at the organ level, both under normal conditions and in disease contexts such as diabetes.

Colleges

• College of Human Medicine

Programs

• Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacology and Toxicology

Education

• PhD, Veterinary medicine, Seoul National University (2006—2012)
• BS, Animal biotechnology, Seoul National University (2002—2006)

Education

• QQQ 1PhD, 2Veterinary medicine, 3Seoul National University 4Veterinary medicine (2006—2012)
• QQQ 1BS, 2Animal biotechnology, 3Seoul National University 4Animal biotechnology (2002—2006)

Funding

• Tick Saliva and Pathogen Transmission, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (2018-05-09—2029-06-30)
• Development of anti-inflammatory nanodrug for endometriosis treatment, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2022-09-30—2027-06-30)
• Understanding immune-epithelial interactions during wound repair in live mammals, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (2023-09-15—2028-07-31)
• Capturing the role of immune-epithelial stem cell interactions during tissue repair by live imaging, New York Stem Cell Foundation (2017-06-01—2020-05-31)
• Live imaging of wound healing, Brown-Coxe Postdoctoral Fellowship, Yale University (2014—2015)
• Understanding the mechanisms of tissue repair by live imaging, State of Connecticut Regenerative Medicine Research Fund (RMRF) Seed Grant (2015—2017)
• The role of immune-epithelial interactions during skin wound repair, Department of Medicine Seed Funding, Michigan State University (2020—2021)
• Understanding mechanisms of skin barrier regeneration in live mammals, Discretionary Funding Initiative (DFI) Grant, Michigan State University (2022—2023)

Works

• Human heart-macrophage assembloids mimic immune-cardiac interactions and enable arrhythmia disease modeling. Cell stem cell (2025-10-27)
• Tick Extracellular Vesicles Alter Epidermal Keratinocyte Function. The Journal of investigative dermatology (2025-09-05)
• Identifying novel biomarkers for ankylosing spondylitis through proteomic profiling of serum-derived extracellular vesicles. Clinical and experimental medicine (2025-07-01)
• Therapeutic strategies for intervertebral disc degeneration: Extracellular vesicles and microRNAs derived from mesenchymal stem cells. World journal of stem cells (2025-07-01)
• An intermediate activation state primes Langerhans cell migration from the epidermis. (2025-05-30)
• Extracellular vesicle-derived MicroRNAs as potential therapies for spinal cord and peripheral nerve injuries. RNA biology (2025-05-30)
• Immune-Epithelial Cell Interactions during Epidermal Regeneration, Repair, and Inflammatory Diseases. International Journal of Stem Cells (2025-02-28)
• Extracellular vesicles: their challenges and benefits as potential biomarkers for musculoskeletal disorders. The Journal of international medical research (2025-02-01)
• Immortalization of epidural fat-derived mesenchymal stem cells: In vitro characterization and adipocyte differentiation potential. World journal of stem cells (2025-01-01)
• Immunometabolic cues recompose and reprogram the microenvironment around implanted biomaterials. Nature biomedical engineering (2024-10-04)
• Immune niches for hair follicle development and homeostasis. Frontiers in physiology (2024-04-22)
• ER stress and lipid imbalance drive diabetic embryonic cardiomyopathy in an organoid model of human heart development. Stem cell reports (2024-02-08)
• A patterned human primitive heart organoid model generated by pluripotent stem cell self-organization. Nature communications (2023-12-12)
• Live imaging reveals chromatin compaction transitions and dynamic transcriptional bursting during stem cell differentiation in vivo. eLife (2023-03-07)
• Hair Follicle Morphogenesis During Embryogenesis, Neogenesis, and Organogenesis. Frontiers in cell and developmental biology (2022-07-22)
• Building vs. Rebuilding Epidermis: Comparison Embryonic Development and Adult Wound Repair. Frontiers in cell and developmental biology (2022-01-25)
• Mesenchymal Stem Cell Exosomes Derived from Feline Adipose Tissue Enhance the Effects of Anti-Inflammation Compared to Fibroblasts-Derived Exosomes. . Veterinary sciences (2021-09-03)
• Skin-resident immune cells actively coordinate their distribution with epidermal cells during homeostasis. Nature cell biology (2021-05-06)
• Mesenchymal Stem Cells Contribute to Improvement of Renal Function in a Canine Kidney Injury Model. In vivo (Athens, Greece) (2017-11-01)
• Correction of aberrant growth preserves tissue homeostasis. Nature (2017-08-02)
• Inhibition by miR-410 facilitates direct retinal pigment epithelium differentiation of umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells. Journal of veterinary science (2017-03-01)
• Tissue-scale coordination of cellular behaviour promotes epidermal wound repair in live mice. Nature cell biology (2017-03-01)
• Live imaging of stem cells: answering old questions and raising new ones. Current opinion in cell biology (2016-07-27)
• Spatiotemporal coordination of stem cell commitment during epidermal homeostasis. Science (New York, N.Y.) (2016-05-26)
• Intravital imaging of hair follicle regeneration in the mouse. Nature protocols (2015-06-25)
• miR-410 Inhibition Induces RPE Differentiation of Amniotic Epithelial Stem Cells via Overexpression of OTX2 and RPE65. Stem cell reviews and reports (2015-06-01)
• Characterization and clinical application of mesenchymal stem cells from equine umbilical cord blood. Journal of veterinary science (2013-06-28)
• Isolation and characterization of equine amniotic membrane-derived mesenchymal stem cells. Journal of veterinary science (2013-02-05)
• Isolation and characterization of antler-derived multipotent stem cells. Cell transplantation (2013-01-02)
• Transplantation of human umbilical cord blood or amniotic epithelial stem cells alleviates mechanical allodynia after spinal cord injury in rats. Cell transplantation (2013-01-02)
• HMGA2 regulates the in vitro aging and proliferation of human umbilical cord blood-derived stromal cells through the mTOR/p70S6K signaling pathway. Stem cell research (2012-11-16)
• Isolation and characterization of canine amniotic membrane-derived multipotent stem cells. PloS one (2012-09-14)
• ZNF281 knockdown induced osteogenic differentiation of human multipotent stem cells in vivo and in vitro. Cell transplantation (2012-09-07)
• CD49f enhances multipotency and maintains stemness through the direct regulation of OCT4 and SOX2. Stem cells (Dayton, Ohio) (2012-05-01)
• Therapeutic effects of human amniotic epithelial stem cells in Niemann-Pick type C1 mice. Cytotherapy (2012-03-12)
• Isolation and characterization of canine Wharton's jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells. Cell transplantation (2012-01-01)
• Metformin represses self-renewal of the human breast carcinoma stem cells via inhibition of estrogen receptor-mediated OCT4 expression. PloS one (2011-11-23)
• SOX2 has a crucial role in the lineage determination and proliferation of mesenchymal stem cells through Dickkopf-1 and c-MYC. Cell death and differentiation (2011-10-21)
• Isolation and characterization of equine amniotic fluid-derived multipotent stem cells. Cytotherapy (2010-09-22)
• Histone deacetylase regulates high mobility group A2-targeting microRNAs in human cord blood-derived multipotent stem cell aging. Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS (2010-07-21)
• Histone deacetylase controls adult stem cell aging by balancing the expression of polycomb genes and jumonji domain containing 3. Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS (2010-01-05)
• bFGF enhances the IGFs-mediated pluripotent and differentiation potentials in multipotent stem cells. Growth factors (Chur, Switzerland) (2009-12-01)
• Isolation and characterization of canine umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells. Journal of veterinary science (2009-09-01)
• Histone deacetylase inhibitors decrease proliferation potential and multilineage differentiation capability of human mesenchymal stem cells. Cell proliferation (2009-08-17)
• Ras activation contributes to the maintenance and expansion of Sca-1pos cells in a mouse model of breast cancer. Cancer letters (2009-07-07)
• In Vitro Differentiation and Expansion of Intrathymic T Cell Progenitors from Human Umbilical Cord Blood-Derived CD34(+) Cells. International journal of stem cells (2009-05-01)
• OCT4A contributes to the stemness and multi-potency of human umbilical cord blood-derived multipotent stem cells (hUCB-MSCs). Biochemical and biophysical research communications (2009-04-24)
• Therapeutic potential of mesenchymal stromal cells in a mouse breast cancer metastasis model. Cytotherapy (2009-01-01)
• Surface modification of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) induced proliferation and neural-like cells differentiation of umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells. Journal of materials science. Materials in medicine (2008-03-24)

Employment

• ZZ1Assistant Professor, ZZ2Michigan State University ZZ3East Lansing ZZ$ (2020)
• ZZ1Associate Research Scientist, ZZ2Yale University ZZ3New Haven ZZ$5755 (2018—2019)
• ZZ1Postdoctoral Fellow, ZZ2Yale University ZZ3New Haven ZZ$ (2013—2018)