Eunsu Park, PhD
Assistant Professor, Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery

  Dr. Park received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at Kyung Hee University, South Korea, in the Lab of Dr. Byung Kwan Jin, Ph.D. in 2013. His graduate work mainly focused on developing the therapeutic strategies for Parkinson’s disease (PD) by regulating transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1, pain receptor) in microglia/ astrocytes, and for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by inhibiting neuroinflammation.

His initial postdoctoral training achieved in the Lab of Dr. M. Maral Mouradian, M.D. at Rutgers University. He focused on elucidating the mechanisms of α-synuclein propagation and on developing the therapeutic strategy for α-synuclein-mediated neurotoxicity in PD. To develop the innovative therapeutic strategy for levodopa-induced dyskinesia (LID) in PD patients, he examined effective medical management of LID by modulation of the dual κ-agonist/μ-antagonist opioid receptor in macaque monkey PD model.

Afterward, he received training in the Lab of Dr. E. Richard Stanley, Ph.D. at Albert Einstein College of medicine. He studied the role of microglial colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF-1R) and its ligands in brain development and adult-onset leukoencephalopathy with axonal spheroids and pigmented glia (ALSP) which is CSF1R-deficiency dementia.
In 2018, he joined the Department of Neurosurgery, in the lab of Dr. Peng R. Chen, M.D. and Dr. Eunhee Kim, Ph.D. to uncover the underlying pathology of brain arteriovenous malformation (bAVM) and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). He contributed to establishing the novel mouse model of bAVM/ICH, and trying to develop the therapeutic strategy for the bAVM and preventive strategy for the ICH.

In 2022, he was promoted to tenure-track assistant professor in the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery. In addition, he is running the Glia Biology Laboratory to investigate glia’s role in the microvascular side of neurological disease, including bAVM, PD, AD, and aging.
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Dr. Park’s work contributed to publishing in several scientific articles, including Annals of Neurology, Brain, Cell reports, Acta Neuropathologica, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Neurobiology of Aging, Brain Research Bulletin, and Antioxidants & Redox Signaling.