Yeon Joo first started working with animal models when she worked as a laboratory animal technician in a pharmacotoxicology lab during her pharmacy undergraduate degree in South Korea. She achieved her master's degree in the same lab by generating cell line derived xenograft mouse models and analysing metabolome changes in mice after cancer treatment. She then completed her PhD in autoimmune disease and biomarker discovery at Saarland University, Germany.
After completing her PhD, she spent two years in Japan as a designated researcher and generated genetically modified mouse models by using embryonic stem cells as well as CRISPR-Cas9. To utilise the knowledge and expertise gained, she then went on to work as a post-doc in St George’s University of London, where she analysed diseased mouse model relating to Hedgehog deficiency. In addition to in-vivo analyses to define Hedgehog's role in germ cell development and migration, she performed molecular biology works to understand communication between Ptched and its co-receptors.
Yeon Joo is currently a Postdoctoral Research Scientist working in Ian McGough’s Group to elucidate the role of lipid binding glypicans in modulating Hedgehog signalling and stem cell dynamics.