Dr. Park is Assistant Professor at the Department of Human Nutrition and Hospitality Management. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Human Nutrition at Ohio State University and completed her postdoctoral research with the Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Endocrinology, at Yale School of Medicine. She has been investigating molecular mechanisms of neuronal death during development and neurological diseases. Her research team aims to identify molecular targets that are causative to neuronal death, and to develop accessible strategies to delay or prevent the debilitating effects of neuronal loss that occur during physiological and pathological processes in the brain.

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Representative Publications

1. Bcl-xL Is Required by Primary Hippocampal Neurons During Development to Support Local Energy Metabolism at Neurites. J. Jansen, M. Scott, E. Amjad, A. Stumpf, K.H. Lackey, K.A. Caldwell, HA Park. Biology 10(8):772, 2021.
2. ATP synthase c-subunit leak causes aberrant cellular metabolism in Fragile X syndrome. P. Licznerski, HA Park, H. Rolyan, R. Chen, et al. Cell 182(5):1170-1185.e9, 2020.
3. Alpha-Tocotrienol Prevents Oxidative Stress-Mediated Post-Translational Cleavage of Bcl-xL in Primary Hippocampal Neurons. HA Park, N. Mnatsakanyan, K. Broman, A.U. Davis, J. May, P. Licznerski, K.M. Crowe-White, K.H. Lackey, E.A. Jonas.  International Journal of Molecular Sciences 21(1):220, 2019.
4. Parkinson’s Disease protein DJ-1 regulates ATP synthase protein components to increase neuronal process outgrowth. R. Chen, HA Park, N. Mnatsakanyan, et al. Cell Death & Disease 10(6):469, 2019.
5. Inhibition of Bcl-xL prevents pro-death actions of ΔN-Bcl-xL at the mitochondrial inner membrane during glutamate excitotoxicity. HA Park, P. Licznerski, N. Mnatsakanyan, Y. Niu, S. Sacchetti, J. Wu, B.M. Polster, K.N. Alavian, E.A. Jonas. Cell Death & Differentiation 24(11):1963-1974, 2017.​

Research Interests

Dr. Park’s research interests are based in the field of nutritional neuroscience, molecular nutrition, and nutritional biochemistry:  to understand the cellular bases for intracellular energy metabolism, excitotoxicity-mediated neuronal death signaling, and the use of strategies, including nutritional interventions and pharmacological treatments, to understand and inhibit neurodegenerative pathways in the brain.  She is currently studying the dynamics of Bcl2 family proteins; specifically, pro-survival Bcl-xL and its cleavage product pro-death ΔN-Bcl-xL.  Her projects examine how these proteins are regulated and the best strategies to prevent ΔN-Bcl-xL formation in order to protect the brain from pathological insults.