Developmental Biology Program

The Junhong Choi Lab

Research

Junhong Choi, PhD

Assistant Professor

Assistant Professor

The Choi Lab develops new synthetic biology tools to study cell-fate decisions in development. During development, cells differentiate into various cell types with distinct functions. To understand how different cell types are made, we need a tool to observe cells’ previous and current states, as well as the sequence of events they undergo. We focus on developing such new tools through:

Cellular engineering
Molecular circuitry
DNA as an information storage medium, and
Synthetic models for cellular development

These novel tools will provide new insights into understanding cell-fate decisions and facilitate cellular engineering for future therapy.

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Research Projects

Publications Highlights

Jihye Park*, Yoojin Chang*, Joshua Schiffman, Divya Koyyalagunta, Hrishikesh Somayaji, Caden N. McQuillen, Joseph Chan, Quaid Morris, Dan A. Landau, Hyongbum Henry Kim#, Junhong Choi#. “Time-resolved lineage recording reveals a pre-existing, heritable cell state underlying metastatic potential” bioRxiv (2026) doi.org/10.64898/2026.08.10.744013v2

Yunzheng Liu, Jihye Park, Laura Amaya, Sergi Junyent, Xiangkai Sun, Jiabao Sean Xiao, Yuqi Wang, Hao Wang, Yunrui Lu, Shoma Nakagawa, Sung-Eun Park, Wenqi Hu, Shichen Liu, Jiangbo Wei, Hyongbum Henry Kim, Matthew Thomson, Cheng-Wei Ju, Marianne E. Bronner, Junhong Choi#, Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz#. “Lineage recording across mouse embryogenesis reveals asynchronous fate restriction and plasticity at the embryonic-extraembryonic boundary” bioRxiv (2026) doi.org/10.64898/2026.10.06.756974v1

Samuel G. Regalado*, Chengxiang Qiu*,#, Sanjay Kottapalli, Chau Huynh, Riza M. Daza, Aidan Keith, Jihye Park, Beth K. Martin, Wei Chen, Hanna Liao, Haedong Kim, Xiaoyi Li, Jean-Benoît Lalanne, Nobuhiko Hamazaki, Silvia Domcke, Junhong Choi#, Jay Shendure#. “A fluctuation test for gastruloid heterogeneity” Cell (2026) doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2026.09.057

Wei Chen*,#, Junhong Choi*, Xiaoyi Li, Jenny F. Nathans, Beth Martin, Wei Yang, Nobuhiko Hamazai, Chengxiang Qiu, Jean-Benoit Lalanne, Samuel Regalado, Haedong Kim, Vikram Agarwal, Eva Nichols, Anh Leith, Choli Lee, Jay Shendure#. “Symbolic recording of signalling and cis-regulatory element activity to DNA” Nature (2024) doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07706-4

Junhong Choi#, Wei Chen, Anna Minkina, Florence M. Chardon, Chase C. Suiter, Samuel G. Regalado, Silvia Domcke, Nobuhiko Hamazaki, Choli Lee, Beth Martin, Riza M. Daza, Jay Shendure#. “A time-resolved, multi-symbol molecular recorder via sequential genome editing” Nature 608, 98-107 (2022) doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04922-8

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People

Junhong Choi, PhD

Assistant Professor

Assistant Professor

The Choi Lab develops new synthetic biology tools to study cell-fate decisions in development.
PhD, Stanford University

[email protected]: Email Address

Members

Lisabelle Adorno

Administrative Assistant

Brendan Camellato

Postdoctoral Research Scholar

Zheren Ou

Postdoctoral Research Scholar

Justin Currie

PhD student

Caden Mcquillen

Graduate Research Student

Jihye Park

Postdoctoral Research Scholar

Christina Ta

Graduate Research Student

Elaine Wu

Graduate Research Student

Achievements

2026 NIH New Innovator Award
2025 Searle Scholars Award
2024 Damon Runyon-Dale F. Frey Award for Breakthrough Scientists
2023 K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award
2020 Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fellowship

2015 Stanford Bio-X Graduate Fellowship

Open Positions

General Opportunities

We are actively recruiting research scientists, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students who are interested in synthetic biology, stem-cell biology, single-cell genomics, and developmental biology.

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Get in Touch

[email protected]

Lab Head Email

Disclosures

Members of the MSK Community often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community. These activities outside of MSK further our mission, provide productive collaborations, and promote the practical application of scientific discoveries.

MSK requires doctors, faculty members, and leaders to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public. Not all disclosed interests and relationships present conflicts of interest. MSK reviews all disclosed interests and relationships to assess whether a conflict of interest exists and whether formal COI management is needed.

Junhong Choi discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

No disclosures meeting criteria for time period

The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.

This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2025 through disclosure submission in spring 2026). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].

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