su min (violet) hong

Vanderbilt
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Violet Hong

Violet Hong | PhD Student

Welcome! Thank you for visiting my page! My name is Violet, and I am a PhD Student in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program(IGP) at Vanderbilt University since August 2025.

My prior research experience spanned enteric neurobiology, epithelial–stromal interactions, and cancer biology, with an emphasis on mechanistic and translational approaches using murine models and human tissue.

In the Muranen Lab at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, I investigated how the stromal tumor microenvironment promoted chemoresistance in pancreatic cancer by modulating DNA damage response pathways,including the identification of NDRG1 as a regulator linking stromal signaling to tumor cell survival.

In the Kulkarni Lab, I led projects investigating adult enteric neurogenesis, stress-induced gastrointestinal dysmotility, and neuron-mediated contributions to colorectal cancer and autoimmune disease. I developed standardized immunohistochemistry panels for assessing the enteric nervous system in human FFPE intestinal biopsies, enabling pathological evaluation of adult ENS dysfunction. My work revealed heterogeneity in adult enteric neuronal turnover,defined how disrupted BDNF–TrkB signaling and neuronal mitochondrial metabolism contributed to dysmotility, and identified autoantibody-mediated targeting of enteric neurons in systemic sclerosis.

In my PhD training, I aim to build on this foundation by investigating how cellular mechanisms within the gastrointestinal tract maintain tissue function and how their disruption drives disease.

Research and Scientific Interest (Keywords)