Young Ah Seo, PhD

Dr. Seo is interested in deciphering the roles of essential metals in related disorders and in developing new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for treating disorders of metal imbalance. She aspires to contribute to the field of metal biology with her unique perspective as a cell biologist and biochemist. Dr. Seo’s current research focuses on the new roles of manganese in a variety of traits and diseases, including intestinal, metabolic, and neurodevelopmental disorders. Dr. Seo also has made substantial progress in developing new small molecules to understand and treat iron imbalance disorders. Dr. Seo employs combinatorial approaches, encompassing mouse reverse genetics and phenotyping, intestinal organoid cultures derived from genetically engineered mice, cell culture model of neuronal development, and functional genomics utilizing next-generation sequencing.

Dr. Seo attended Ewha Womans’ University for college, followed by a Ph.D. at the Pennsylvania State University. Following training in molecular metabolism, she moved into genetics and complex diseases as a postdoc at Harvard University. She has received numerous honors and awards. As a graduate student, she won the 1st place in American Society for Nutrition Graduate Student Research Award for excellence in student research in the field of nutritional sciences, the American Society for Nutrition Predoctoral Fellowship for graduate students in nutritional sciences endowed by the Wrigley Science Institute, the first place American Society for Nutrition the Vitamin and Mineral Research Poster Award, and the 1st place in American Physiological Society Robert Gunn Student Award in Cell & Molecular Physiology. As a postdoctoral fellow, she received an NIH Pathway to Independence Award K99/R00 and won the American Society for Nutrition Postdoctoral Research Award endowed by DuPont Nutrition & Health. Since opening her lab at the University of Michigan, she received the E.L.R. Stokstad Outstanding Young Investigator Award, which is a National Scientific Achievement Award from the American Society for Nutrition for excellent fundamental research in nutrition. She also has been the recipient of an inaugural Early-Career Faculty Investigator Grant Award from Neurodegeneration of Brain Iron Accumulation (NBIA) Disorders Association, a Million Dollar Bike Ride grant from the University of Pennsylvania, and Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR) Pathway to Independence Award.

View CV

E. L. R. Stokstad Outstanding Young Investigator Award given for excellent fundamental research in nutrition, The American Society for Nutrition (2019)

Michigan Institute for Clinical & Health Research (MICHR) Pathway to Independence Award, University of Michigan (2019)

Early-Career Faculty Investigator Grant Award, Neurodegeneration of brain iron accumulation (NBIA) association (2018)

Winner of the Postdoctoral Research Award, The American Society for Nutrition (2016)

NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award (2014)

Winner of Robert Gunn Student Award for Cell and Molecular Physiology, The American Physiological Society (2012)

Penn State Alumni Association Dissertation Award at the College level, Pennsylvania State University (2012)

Woot-Tsuen Wu Leung Scholarship given to outstanding nutrition students, Pennsylvania State University (2011)

Winner of the Vitamin and Mineral Research Poster Competition, The American Society for Nutrition (2011)

Winner of the Graduate Student Research Award Competition, The American Society for Nutrition (2010)

Wrigley Science Institute Predoctoral Fellowship for Students in Nutrition Research, The American Society for Nutrition (2010)

Magna Cum Laude graduate, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea (2004)