John Chua Jia En
Dr. rer. nat.
Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology
Centre for Life Sciences
National University of Singapore
28 Medical Drive, #05-01I Singapore 117456
Tel: 6601 5178
Email: phsjcje@nus.edu.sg
Website: https://nus.edu.sg/lsi/principal-investigators-3/dr-john-chua-jia-en/

Major Research Interests

Recent Publications

1. Kok VJT, Tang JY, Eng GWL, Tan SY, Chin JTF, Quek CH, Lai WX, Lim TK, Lin Q, Chua JJE, Cheong JK. SFPQ promotes RAS-mutant cancer cell growth by modulating 5′-UTR mediated translational control of CK1α. NAR Cancer. 2022 Sep 27;4(3):zcac027. doi: 10.1093/narcan/zcac027. PMID: 36177382; PMCID: PMC9513841.
2. Chua, J. J. E. HEBP1 – An early trigger for neuronal cell death and circuit dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease. Seminars in cell & developmental biology (2022). https://doi.org:10.1016/j.semcdb.2022.07.005
3. Trubetskoy, V. et al. Mapping genomic loci implicates genes and synaptic biology in schizophrenia. Nature (2022). https://doi.org:10.1038/s41586-022-04434-5
4. Razar, R., Qu, Y., Gunaseelan, S. & Chua, J. J. E. The importance of fasciculation and elongation protein zeta-1 in neural circuit establishment and neurological disorders. Neural Regen Res 17, 1165-1171 (2022). https://doi.org:10.4103/1673-5374.327327
5. Klionsky, D. J. et al. Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)(1). Autophagy 17, 1-382 (2021). https://doi.org:10.1080/15548627.2020.1797280
6. Gunaseelan, S. et al. Loss of FEZ1, a gene deleted in Jacobsen syndrome, causes locomotion defects and early mortality by impairing motor neuron development. Hum. Mol. Genet. 30, 5-20 (2021). https://doi.org:10.1093/hmg/ddaa281
7. Chua, J. Y., Ng, S. J., Yagensky, O., Wanker, E. E. & Chua, J. J. E. FEZ1 Forms Complexes with CRMP1 and DCC to Regulate Axon and Dendrite Development. eNeuro 8 (2021). https://doi.org:10.1523/ENEURO.0193-20.2021
8. Wong, H.Y., Prasad, A., Gan, S.U., Chua, J.J.E., and Schwarz, H. (2020). Identification of CD137-Expressing B Cells in Multiple Sclerosis Which Secrete IL-6 Upon Engagement by CD137 Ligand. Frontiers in immunology 11, 571964.
9. Yagensky, O., Kohansal-Nodehi, M., Gunaseelan, S., Rabe, T., Zafar, S., Zerr, I., Hartig, W., Urlaub, H., and Chua, J.J. (2019). Increased expression of heme-binding protein 1 early in Alzheimer’s disease is linked to neurotoxicity. eLife 8, e47498.
10. Koopmans, F., van Nierop, P., Andres-Alonso, M., Byrnes, A., Cijsouw, T., Coba, M.P., Cornelisse, L.N., Farrell, R.J., Goldschmidt, H.L., Howrigan, D.P., et al. (2019). SynGO: An Evidence-Based, Expert-Curated Knowledge Base for the Synapse. Neuron 103, 217-234 e214.
11. Butkevich E, Härtig W, Nikolov M, Erck C, Grosche J, Urlaub H, Schmidt CF, Klopfenstein DR, Chua JJ. (2016) Phosphorylation of FEZ1 by Microtubule Affinity Regulating Kinases regulates its function in presynaptic protein trafficking. Sci Rep. 6:26965.
12. Yagensky O, Kalantary Dehaghi T, Chua JJ. (2016) The Roles of Microtubule-Based Transport at Presynaptic Nerve Terminals. Front. Synaptic Neurosci. 8:3. doi: 10.3389/fnsyn.2016.00003.
13. Binotti B, Pavlos NJ, Riedel D, Wenzel D, Vorbrüggen G, Schalk AM, Kühnel K, Boyken J, Erck C, Martens H, Chua JJ*, Jahn R*. (2015) The GTPase Rab26 links synaptic vesicles to the autophagy pathway. Elife. 4:e05597.
14. Boyken J, Grønborg M, Riedel D, Urlaub H, Jahn R, Chua JJ. (2013) Molecular profiling of synaptic vesicle docking sites reveals novel proteins but few differences between glutamatergic and GABAergic synapses. Neuron. 78: 285-297.
15. Chua JJ, Butkevich E, Worseck JM, Kittelmann M, Grønborg M, Behrmann E, Stelzl U, Pavlos NJ, Lalowski M, Eimer S, Wanker EE, Klopfenstein D, Jahn R. (2012) Phosphorylation-regulated axonal dependent transport of syntaxin 1 is mediated by a Kinesin-1 adapter. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 109: 5862- 5867.