2025-2026  Research Associate, The Hospital for Sick Children, Canada

2023-2025  Postdoctoral Fellow, The Hospital for Sick Children, Canada 

2017-2023  PhD in Physiology, University of Toronto, Canada 

2007-2015  MSc and BSc, Kyung Hee University College of Pharmacy, Korea   

Our research focuses on understanding the neural basis of memory and cognition, as well as pathological dysfunctions in brain-related disease states.

 

Publications:

Publications:

Sangyoon Y. Ko, Stephen F. Pastore, Sungmo Park, Jonathan R. Epp, Anna Mikhailov, Leon French, Hidekiyo Harada, Philippe P. Monnier, Paul A. Hamel, Sheena A. Josselyn, John B. Vincent#, Paul W. Frankland# (2026). Disruption of major Ptchd1 isoforms causes autistic traits in social behavior and communication. Molecular Psychiatry (16th June 2026; online ahead of print).
 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-026-03685-2

Clarrisa A. Bradley, Sangyoon Y. Ko, Meng Tian, Liam T. Ralph, Lia D’Abate, Jinyeol Lee, Tianyi Liu, Junhui Wang, Patrick Tidball, Marla Mendes, Xiaolian Fan, Jennifer L. Howe, Roumiana Alexandrova, Giovanna Pellecchia, Guillermo Casallo, Tara Paton, Leanne E. Wybenga-Groot, Worrawat Engchuan, Bhooma Thiruvahindrapuram, Brett Trost, Jill de Rijke, Ashish Kadia, Fuzi Jin, Nelson Bautista Salazar, J. Javier Diaz-Mejia, Jeffrey R. MacDonald, Eric Deneault, P. Joel Ross, James Ellis, Carole Shum, John Georgiou, Olivia Rennie, Miriam S. Reuter, Ny Hoang, Ege Sarikaya, Thanuja Selvanayagam, Aeen E. Amini, Annabel Rutherford, Natalia Rivera-Alfaro, Christian R. Marshall, Marcello Scala, Cassandra K. Runke, Hutton M. Kearney, John Christodoulou, David I. Francis, Brian H. Y. Chung, Jill Plucinicazak, Alana Iaboni, Kristen M. Wigby, Christine W. Nordahl, David G. Amaral, Melissa L. Hudson,  Calvin P. Sjaarda, Andrea Guerin, Mayada Elsabbagh, Rebecca Landa, Seema Mital, Robert Lesurf, Anjali Jain, Michael D. Wilson, Jason P. Lerch, Leo J. Lee, Brendan J. Frey,  Michael W. Salter, Jacob A.S Vorstman, Evdokia Anagnostou, Paul W. Frankland, Graham L. Collingridge, and Stephen W. Scherer# (2026). An X-linked long non-coding RNA, PTCHD1-AS, and the core features of autism. Nature, 1-11 (13th May 2026; online ahead of print).
 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10515-6

Sangyoon Y. Ko, Yiming Rong, Adam I. Ramsaran, Xiaoyu Chen, Asim J. Rashid, Andrew Mocle, Jagroop Dhaliwal, Ankit Awasthi, Axel Guskjolen, Sheena A. Josselyn, Paul W. Frankland# (2025). Systems consolidation reorganizes hippocampal engram circuitry. Nature,643(8072), 735-743.
 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08993-1

Marcello Scala#, Lisa Bradley, Jennifer Howe, Brett Trost, Nelson Bautista Salazar, Carole Shum, Miriam S. Reuter, Jeffrey R. MacDonald, Sangyoon Y. Ko, Paul W. Frankland, Leslie Granger, Verdiana Pullano, Alfredo Brusco, Roberto Keller, Sarah Parisotto, Helio Pedro, Laina Lusk, Annabelle Tuttle, Emilie Douine-Barthelemy, Bianca Russell, Federico Zara, Stephen W. Scherer# (2025). Genetic variants in DDX53 contribute to autism spectrum disorder associated with the Xp22.11 locus. American Journal of Human Genetics, 112(1), 154-167.
 
 

Sungmo Park, Sang Yoon Ko, Paul W. Frankland, Sheena A. Josselyn# (2024). Comparing behaviours induced by natural memory retrieval and optogenetic reactivation of an engram ensemble in mice. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 379(1906), 20230227.
 
 

Adam I. Ramsaran, Ying Wang, Ali Golbabaei, Stepan Aleshin, Mitchell L. de Snoo, Bi-ru Amy Yeung, Asim J. Rashid, Ankit Awasthi, Jocelyn Lau, Lina M. Tran, Sangyoon Y. Ko, Andrin Abbegg, Lana Chunan Duan, Cory McKenzie, Julia Gallucci, Moriam Ahmed, Rahul Kaushik, Alexander Dityatev, Sheena A. Josselyn, Paul W. Frankland# (2023). A shift in the mechanisms controlling hippocampal engram formation during brain maturation. Science, 380(6644), 543-551.
 
 

Stephen F. Pastore, Sangyoon Y. Ko, Paul W. Frankland, Paul A. Hamel, John B. Vincent# (2022). PTCHD1: Discovery and neurodevelopmental contributions of an autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability susceptibility gene. Genes, 13(3), 527.

Graduate Student : 조규석

Undergraduate Researcher : 박제민, 안유민, 이도원, 서인규, 장문선  

Homepage : https://ko-lab.org/

Contact : sangyoon.ko@kaist.ac.kr

 We are currently recruiting highly motivated postdoctoral fellows and graduate students to join our lab!