Hanjoong Jo Named Correll Professor in Biomedical Engineering
Hanjoong Jo, BME professor, was recently named as the Ada Lee and Pete Correll Professor in Biomedical Engineering. The professorship goes to a faculty member involved in Emory and Georgia Tech’s joint venture in nanomedicine and cardiovascular disease, in particular the early detection of plaque in atherogenesis.
Jo received his Ph.D from Pennsylvania State University and did his undergraduate work at Korea University. His research areas of interest include vascular mechanobiology and diseases; atherosclerosis and hypertension; and microgravity-induced bone loss.
The Professorship is named for former Georgia Pacific Chairman and CEO Peter Correll and wife, Ada Lee. Professorships recognize and help recruit and retain top-level clinicians, teachers and researchers, and provide additional support for ongoing research.
Jo was part of a team of scientists at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology who found a genetic link between mechanical changes in blood flow patterns and the development of atherosclerotic plaques. The discovery could help explain how increasing blood flow through physical activity helps prevent atherosclerosis. Jo and his colleagues used a combined engineering and molecular approach to demonstrate how changes in blood flow might contribute to the prevention or development of lipid-containing plaques that can rupture and block blood vessels, leading to heart attack and stroke. The research was published in an on-line edition of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.