Leo J. Chung

“Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.”

— The Imitation Game (2014)

  • Scientist
  • Educator
  • Art, music & sport

Major in Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience

See my projects Curriculum vitae
Leo J. Chung

Based in

Vancouver, BC

What drives me

Producing results that others can trust and build upon.

About

Hi — I'm Leo 👋

I am a scientist and an educator at UBC — chromatin and the gut–brain axis at one end of the work, animal communication at the other. I also teach, design curriculum, and spend a great deal of time on art, music and sport, which is less a separate life than the reason the research interests me. Currently in R&D at STEMCELL Technologies and with the Moss Lab at Johns Hopkins.

I'm a scientist and a teacher at UBC, and most days that means chasing questions about the brain that don't fit in one lab: chromatin and epigenetics on one end, the gut's surprisingly direct line to the brain on the other, and animal communication somewhere in between. Different systems, same habit of mind.

What ties it together is measurement — figuring out what's actually going on inside from whatever you can honestly record. That's also why I care about teaching: I co-created and taught a for-credit UBC seminar on the neuroscience of art, because explaining something well is usually the fastest way to actually understand it.

Vancouver right now

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Local time

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    The record
    • FieldsNeuroscience · education · neuroaesthetics
    • DegreeBSc Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience, UBC — 2028
    • NowSTEMCELL Technologies
    • AffiliationsSimons Foundation · DMCBH
    • TaughtASTU 400E — Neuroaesthetics
    • HomeVancouver, BC — born and raised
    • Status●Seeking Jan 2027 co-op
    OrganoidsConfocal microscopyMolecular biologyWet chemistryMouse handlingCCAC laboratory rodent ethicsBehavioral assaysBiosafety permitChemical safetyHazardous waste managementFood safety — CP-FSResearch ethicsProject planningData cleaning & mergingScientific writingCurriculum designCommunity outreachEvent planningMentorshipCollaborative leadershipProject managementTeamworkCustomer experience

    Trained in

    Bench work, animal research, and the classroom.

    • Molecular biologyRT-qPCR, PCR & genotyping, RNA & DNA extraction, cDNA synthesis
    • Cell & tissue methodsCell culture, primary cell isolation, immunostaining, tissue sectioning
    • ImagingConfocal microscopy, tissue slide imaging, ImageJ & Fiji
    • Data & statisticsR, comparative testing, correlation and regression
    • Animal researchMouse handling, CCAC rodent ethics, behavioral assays
    • Lab safetyBiosafety, chemical safety, hazardous waste
    • Science communicationPosters and oral talks at conferences
    • TeachingCurriculum design and mentorship
    Featured

    Where the work has been written up by someone other than me.

    All press

    UBC School of Biomedical Engineering

    Student Scientists Shine at Synergy Undergraduate Research Day

    Coverage of the Synergy summer studentship, where the IBD and Alzheimer's project took the top prize for Trainee Rapid Talks.

    Sep 2025 · bme.ubc.ca ↗

    UBC Faculty of Arts

    7 New Student Directed Seminars in Arts

    The Faculty of Arts announcement of the seminars approved for 2025/26, including Neuroaesthetics: Your Brain on Art.

    Nov 2025 · arts.ubc.ca ↗

    Simons Foundation

    Simons Foundation Announces Latest Class of SURFiN Fellows

    The Shenoy Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Neuroscience, named in memory of the neuroscientist Krishna Shenoy.

    Sep 2025 · simonsfoundation.org ↗
    Currently

    Right now

    Three things I'm doing at once, across industry, research and education.

    Industry

    Research & Development Intern

    STEMCELL Technologies — R&D internship

    May 2026 — present · UBC Co-op

    Research

    Research Data Analyst

    Moss Lab, Johns Hopkins — Psychological & Brain Sciences

    Jun 2026 — present · Hybrid

    Education research

    Med-Tech Education Research Assistant

    Si-Lab, UBC — Audiology & Speech Sciences

    May 2026 — present · Hybrid

    Principles

    What I care about

    Three things that show up in everything above.

    Reproducibility

    Good science comes from tight execution. I troubleshoot and iterate until an assay works cleanly, not just once.

    Clear data

    Results only help if people can act on them — I organize and present data so a team can make decisions quickly.

    The big picture

    Careful work upstream is what makes the data downstream mean something. Knowing where my piece fits matters.

    Content

    What I've been reading lately…

    • PLACEHOLDER — a paper you actually read this month
    • PLACEHOLDER — a review that changed how you think about the gut–brain axis
    • PLACEHOLDER — something on chromatin or the BAF complex
    • PLACEHOLDER — an essay about teaching or science communication
    • PLACEHOLDER — something entirely unrelated to neuroscience