Hong Jin

Hong Jin is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Professor of Biophysics and Quantitative Biology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His affiliations include the School of Molecular & Cellular Biology, the Cancer Center at Illinois, and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. Dr. Jin earned his B.S. from Central China Normal University, his Ph.D. from Yale University, and completed postdoctoral research at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge, UK).

His research focuses on molecular mechanisms of translational regulation, quality control in translation, and RNA-binding proteins. Key areas include ribosome dynamics, Drg GTPase functions in protein synthesis, and RGG motif proteins' roles in post-transcriptional regulation. His work combines structural biology, biochemistry, and biophysics to investigate fundamental questions in molecular biology, with implications for cancer and developmental disorders.

Notable scientific awards include the NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (2009-2012). His lab actively collaborates on projects involving drug discovery, ribosome structure, and translational control mechanisms. Current research includes studies on Rbg1/Tma46 heterodimeric GTPases and the molecular basis of co-translational quality control.

Dr. Jin advises students and postdoctoral fellows in biochemistry, biophysics, and molecular biology. His lab’s recent work includes discoveries on nucleolar territories formed by noncoding RNAs and the modulation of mRNA translation by intrinsically disordered proteins.