JANG Soojin

Biography

Soojin Jang is the Head of Antibacterial Resistance Laboratory at Institut Pasteur Korea. Dr. Jang has over 10 years of research experience in microbial genetics, biochemistry, and molecular biology of bacteria and parasites. At Institut Pasteur Korea, Dr. Jang established Antibacterial Resistance Laboratory and has successfully leveraged her expertise in bacterial physiology to design and implement high-throughput small molecule screenings for the discovery of novel antibacterial agents. Dr. Jang is working with various domestic and international partners including Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP), an initiative between WHO and DNDi for development of new antibiotics, contributing her expertise on discovery of new antibacterial molecules to fight against antibiotic resistance. Dr. Jang received her Master degree in Genetic Engineering from Kyunghee University and did her PhD in Microbiology at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in the US.

Research Focus

• Drug discovery
• Bacterial infections
• Antibiotic resistance

Publications

• Jang K, Kim H, Choi D, Jang S, Chung DK. Staphylococcus aureus utilizes vimentin to internalize human keratinocytes. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2025 Feb 21;15:1543186. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1543186. PMID: 40061451; PMCID: PMC11885264.
• Jun Young Lee, Sungmin Kim, Jihwan Gim, Yunmi Lee, Hyunjung Lee, Chae Jo Lim, Hyun-Seob Song, Hyeung-geun Park, Soojin Jang, Chul Min Park., Discovery of 3-acyl-2-anilino-1,4-dihydroquinolin-4-one derivatives as potential inhibitors of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus., Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters. 2025 April (118) 130084. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bmcl.2024.130084.
• Kim JH, Lee Y, Kim I, Chang J, Hong S, Lee NK, Shum D, Baek S, Kim W, Jang S, Lee W. Reducing Peptidoglycan Crosslinking by Chemical Modulator Reverts β-lactam Resistance in Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2024 May 15:e2400858. doi: 10.1002/advs.202400858. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38747156.
• Blasco B, Jang S, Terauchi H, Kobayashi N, Suzuki S, Akao Y, Ochida A, Morishita N, Takagi T, Nagamiya H, Suzuki Y, Watanabe T, Lee H, Lee S, Shum D, Cho A, Koh D, Park S, Lee H, Kim K, Ropponen HK, Augusto da Costa RM, Dunn S, Ghosh S, Sjö P, Piddock LJV. High-throughput screening of small-molecules libraries identified antibacterials against clinically relevant multidrug-resistant A. baumannii and K. pneumoniae. EBioMedicine. 2024 Apr;102:105073. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105073. Epub 2024 Mar 22. PMID: 38520916; PMCID: PMC10963893.
• Wu J, Hu Y, Perlin MH, Danko D, Lu J, Oliveira M, Werner J, Zambrano MM, Sierra MA, Osuolale OO, Łabaj P, Rascovan N, Hazrin-Chong NH, Jang S, Suzuki H, Nieto-Caballero M, Prithiviraj B, Lee PKH, Chmielarczyk A, Różańska A, Zhao Y, Wang L, Mason CE, Shi T. Landscape of global urban environmental resistome and its association with local socioeconomic and medical status. Sci China Life Sci. 2024 Mar 12. doi: 10.1007/s11427-023-2504-1. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38489008.
• Soojin Jang. AcrAB−TolC, a major efflux pump in Gram negative bacteria: toward understanding its operation mechanism. BMB Reports 2023; 56(6): 326-334.
• Lee D, Lee Y, Hye Shin S, Min Choi S, Hyeon Lee S, Jeong S, Jang S, Kee JM. A simple protein histidine kinase activity assay for high-throughput inhibitor screening. Bioorg Chem. 2023 Jan;130:106232.
• Robin B. Guevarra, Juchan Hwang, Hyunjung Lee, Hyung Jun Kim, Yunmi Lee, David Danko, Krista A. Ryon, Benjamin Grady Young, Christopher E. Mason, Soojin Jang* Metagenomic characterization of bacterial community and antibiotic resistance genes found in the mass transit system in Seoul, South Korea. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2022 Oct 15;246:114176. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.114176.
• Wu J, Danko D, Afshinnekoo E, Bezdan D, Bhattacharyya M, Castro-Nallar E, Chmielarczyk A, Hazrin-Chong NH, Deng Y, Dias-Neto E, Frolova A, Mason-Buck G, Iraola G, Jang S, Łabaj P, Lee PKH, Nieto-Caballero M, Osuolale OO, Ouzounis CA, Perlin MH, Prithiviraj B, Rascovan N, Różańska A, Schriml LM, Semmler T, Suzuki H, Ugalde JA, Young B, Werner J, Zambrano MM, Zhao Y, Mason C, Shi T; MetaSUB Consortium. Annotating unknown species of urban microorganisms on a global scale unveils novel functional diversity and local environment association. Environ Res. 2022 May 1;207:112183. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.112183. 
• Hyung Jun Kim, Yingying Li, Michael Zimmermann, Yunmi Lee, Hui Wen Lim, Alvin Swee Leong Tan, Inhee Choi, Yoonae Ko, Sangchul Lee, Jeong Jea Seo, Mooyoung Seo, Hee Kyoung Jeon, Jonathan Cechetto, Joey Kuok Hoong Yam, Liang Yang, Uwe Sauer, Soojin Jang*, Kevin Pethe* Pharmacological perturbation of thiamine metabolism in Pseudomonas aeruginosa reveals an array of chemical-chemical interactions Cell Chem Biol. 2022 Jul 21;S2451-9456(22)00244-6..
• Lee H, Lee J, Hwang J, Park S, Kim N, Kim K, Lee H, Shum D, Jang S. Repurposing Eltrombopag for Multidrug Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Infections. Antibiotics (Basel). 2021 Nov 9;10(11):1372. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics10111372. PMID: 34827309; PMCID: PMC8615030.
•  Jun Wu, David Danko, Ebrahim Afshinnekoo,…Soojin Jang,…Christopher Mason, Tieliu Shi, MetaSUB Consortium. Annotating unknown species of urban microorganisms on a global scale unveils novel functional diversity and local environment association. Environ Res. 2021 Oct 9;112183.
• Danko D, Bezdan D, … Jang S,…Mason CE; International MetaSUB Consortium. A global metagenomic map of urban microbiomes and antimicrobial resistance. Cell. 2021 Jun 24;184(13):3376-3393.e17.
• Afshinnekoo E, Bhattacharya C, Burguete-García A, Castro-Nallar E, Deng Y, Desnues C, Dias-Neto E, Elhaik E, Iraola G, Jang S, Łabaj PP, Mason CE, Nagarajan N, Poulsen M, Prithiviraj B, Siam R, Shi T, Suzuki H, Werner J, Zambrano MM, Bhattacharyya M. COVID-19 drug practices risk antimicrobial resistance evolution. Lancet Microbe. 2021 Apr;2(4):e135-e136.
• Lee SY, Lee H, Yun SH, Jun S , Lee Y, Kim W, Park EC, Baek J, Kwak Y, Noh S, Seo G, Jang S, Park CM, and Kim SI. (2020) Application of Multi-omics Technology for the Elucidation of Anti-pneumococcal Activity of 3-Acyl-2-phenylamino-1,4-dihydroquinolin-4-one (APDQ) derivative against Streptococcus pneumoniae. Sci Rep. 2020 Nov 26;10(1):20685.
• Kim HJ, Lee H, Lee Y, Choi I, Ko Y, Lee S, Jang S.(2020) The ThiL Enzyme Is a Valid Antibacterial Target Essential for Both Thiamine Biosynthesis and Salvage Pathways in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. J Biol Chem. 2020 May 13;jbc.RA120.013295.
• 17. Huddar S, Park CM, Kim HJ, Jang S, Lee S. (2020) Discovery of 4-hydroxy-2-oxo-1,2-dihydroquinolines as potential inhibitors of Streptococcus pneumoniae, including drug-resistant strains. Bioorg Med Chem Lett. 2020 May 1;30(9):127071.