Spotlight on Dongkyun Lim, NORPOD Fellow
We spoke with Dongkyun Lim, the 6th NORPOD Fellow at the Nordic EMBL Partnership, who has just started as postdoctoral fellow in the groups of Charlotte Boccara at NCMBM, and Thomas Kim at DANDRITE. His project focuses on how the lack of sleep after birth affects brain cells and their support systems.
Tell us about the aims of your project and how you will be addressing those aims.
My project aims to elucidate how postnatal sleep deficiency affects neuronal and glial development. Although many clinical studies highlight the importance of sleep for healthy brain development in childhood, the underlying cellular mechanisms remain unclear.
To address this, region-specific maturation progress in cells and sleep will be mapped using spatial transcriptomics combined with electrophysiological sleep recordings in young rats. This will allow me to understand which genes are activated and when. I will then investigate how early sleep perturbations alter gene expression profiles in specific cell populations at different sleep maturation stages.
Through this project, I expect to identify key genetic factors and critical time points that could support healthy brain development in early life.
What’s your research journey in a nutshell? How did you get from your hometown to joining the NORPOD programme?
My research journey was ignited during an exchange programme at the University of Oslo during my undergraduate studies in Life Science at Dongguk University in Seoul, South Korea in 2014. Two Norwegian neuroscientists, May-Britt and Edvard Moser, received the Nobel Prize in the same year, which inspired me to pursue neuroscience. During my MSc project, I studied DNA methylation profiles of a transgenic construct in the medial entorhinal cortex (MEC), which is situated in the medial temporal lobe of the brain.
After that, I studied the anatomical and electrophysiological properties of thalamic neurons within the head direction system during my PhD at the Université Paris Cité in France.
I experienced a good research and life environment in Norway, so it was not a difficult decision to return, especially with the opportunity to continue my academic career, in my favourite scientific field, where it all started!
What drew you to the NORPOD Fellowship? Considering the nature/topic of your research project, what made you think, “Yes, this is the one for me”?
At the end of my PhD, I wanted to expand my research scope towards systems level in neuroscience and in vivo approaches while still applying my molecular and cellular research background. The NORPOD research project, proposed by Charlotte and Thomas, fitted exactly that! It involves both spatial transcriptomics and in vivo sleep recording.
Importantly, I also realised that both Charlotte’s and Thomas’ labs were highly enriching environments, combining strong technical expertise to support the project with thoughtful and constructive supervision that fosters my academic development.
You’re working across borders with different labs: what excites you most about this international collaboration? Using 2 emojis, do you have any fun cultural discoveries so far?
It is always interesting to interact with people from different backgrounds, as we express ourselves and think differently. It is refreshing and often gives me inspiration to approach situations and problems with a different point of view. This is useful for my “science” and personal life. As I have yet to discover Denmark, my cultural facts are based on what I have discovered in Norway.
🚿Underfloor heating in the bathroom: in my home country, there is underfloor heating in every apartment, but it doesn’t cover the bathroom. I think this is very efficient to keep the bathroom dry and clean.
🌮 Tacofredag is one of my favourite traditions in Norway. All my Norwegian memory starts from tacofredag. I am not sure how Mexican people would react, but I found that Norwegian tacos are healthy, tasty and easy to prepare.
It is early days however where do you hope this experience takes you next? What’s the dream career move or research question you’re itching to explore?
As this is my first postdoc position, I would like to explore academia further to refine my career aspirations. I am also delighted that the NORPOD fellowship programme provides a variety of training courses, and that both NCMBM and DANDRITE provide a supportive environment fostering collaboration and scientific exchange.
I believe that my current position will help me define my career plans. One certainty, however, is that I wish to be in a position where I can share my knowledge and further the collective understanding of how the brain works.
About NORPOD
The NORPOD Postdoctoral Programme is the flagship training initiative of the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine, funded by NordForsk. Designed to foster the next generation of scientists, it provides postdocs with unique opportunities to work across borders, combining expertise, technologies, and mentorship from leading research environments in the Nordic region.
As part of this ambitious programme, fellows pursue cutting-edge projects while experiencing the collaborative spirit and scientific excellence that define the Nordic EMBL Partnership.