Hijai Regina Shin

Hijai Regina Shin is an Assistant Professor at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI), part of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. She holds a dual role in the Genetic and Metabolic Disease Program. Her research focuses on lysosomal biology, particularly how cholesterol sensing and metabolic signaling pathways regulate cellular growth and disease progression. Dr. Shin received her B.Sc. in Biology and Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Seoul National University, followed by postdoctoral training at UC Berkeley under Roberto Zoncu, where she discovered the lysosomal cholesterol sensor LYCHOS.

Her lab combines cell biology, biochemistry, and chemical biology to study lysosomal dysfunction in cancer (e.g., glioblastoma) and neurodegenerative diseases. Key projects include decoding cholesterol’s role in brain cancer metabolism and developing tools to manipulate organelle-specific metabolic pathways. She has secured significant funding, including CPRIT grants (2025) and the 2025 Searle Scholar award ($300k over 3 years), recognizing her innovative lysosome research. Current lab members include postdoctoral fellows and research scientists working on projects like ER-lysosome crosstalk and cancer lipid metabolism.

Dr. Shin has published over 15 peer-reviewed articles in journals like Science, Nature Cell Biology, and Developmental Cell, with a focus on lysosomal signaling, mTORC1 regulation, and disease mechanisms. Her work bridges basic science and translational medicine, targeting therapeutic interventions for lysosomal storage diseases and cancer.