Un Jung Kang MD

Dr. Kang is a physician scientist who just returned to the Department of Neurology as H. Houston Merritt Professor of Neurology and chief of the Division of Movement Disorders in 2013. Dr. Kang completed his medical training at Johns Hopkins University and his neurology residency and fellowship in movement disorders here at Columbia, under the mentorship of his legendary predecessor, Dr. Stanley Fahn. Following his clinical education, Dr. Kang obtained his basic science training in catecholamine molecular biology and gene therapy for Parkinson's disease (PD), before joining the faculty of the University of Chicago School of Medicine, where he served as professor of neurology and director of the Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Center until 2013.

Funded by the National Institutes of Health and private foundations, Dr. Kang's research focuses on the elucidation of mechanisms of long term plasticity of basal ganglia in PD that manifest as either in detrimental ways or beneficial ways. His laboratory also studies mechanisms underlying degeneration in PD, including the role of genes involved in familial forms of PD. He is striving to translate some of his research findings to patient-based studies such as biomarker studies in PD to diagnose and stratify the patients better and aid in therapy development.