Seungjoon Ahn

Seungjoon Ahn is an Assistant Professor at Mississippi State University, where he leads The Ahn Lab under the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. His research focuses on biochemical and molecular adaptation of insects to xenobiotics, genomic analysis of detoxification gene families, and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing for pest management.

• Key Research Areas: Insect-plant interactions, UDP-glycosyltransferase evolution, GPCR ligand identification, and transcriptomic responses to environmental stressors.
• Scientific Contributions: Recent work includes decoding detoxification strategies in Hemiptera, functional GPCR characterization in Drosophila, and CRISPR/Cas9 applications in pest species.
• Awards: Recognized with the Ottilie Schillig Special Teaching Projects Award and DAFVM Merit Award in Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology.
• Students: Mentors graduate students Courtney Wynn, Seung Heon Lee, and Sujin Lee.
• Publications: His most recent articles (2025-2021) explore insect detoxification, genome editing, and neuropeptide functions across diverse species like Drosophila suzukii and Anopheles funestus.
• Professional Affiliations: Member of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Entomological Society of America, and UGT Nomenclature Committee.