Jonathan Jun, MD
Dr. Jun attended Dartmouth College from 1994 until 1998 where he completed his degree in biochemistry and molecular biology. He graduated from University of Maryland School of Medicine in 2003, and completed internal medicine residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in 2006. He completed fellowships in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine in 2010 at Johns Hopkins University, where he is currently an Instructor. His interest in integrated physiology led him to pursue an academic career in sleep and respiratory research.
Since the beginning of his fellowship, Dr. Jun has worked with his mentor Dr. Vsevolod Polotsky examining the metabolic consequences of obstructive sleep apnea. He has conducted several studies evaluating the effects of intermittent hypoxia on oxidative stress, atherosclerosis, and lipid metabolism in mice. Recently, he has focused on the acute effects of systemic hypoxia, and demonstrated the critical importance of ambient temperature in the direction and magnitude of metabolic responses. Dr. Jun also has begun to examine the impact of sleep apnea and intermittent hypoxia in human subjects. In 2011, he observed that sleep apnea causes a rise in nocturnal free fatty acid levels. He is now assessing whether these increases in lipids during sleep may lead to adverse metabolic and cardiovascular consequences, and how chemosensitivity to hypoxia and hypercapnia influence susceptibility of patients with sleep apnea to metabolic and cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Jun’s research efforts to date have culminated in 20 original peer-reviewed publications, First Place in a Johns Hopkins postdoctoral fellowship research competition, funding from the American Lung Association/NSF Pickwick Award, Hopkins Clinical Scientist Award, Eudowood Baurenschmidt Award, National Institutes of Health K08 Award, and the Diabetes Research Training Center Pilot & Feasibility Award. His goal is to leverage his experience in combining murine and human research methods to develop new ways of identifying at-risk patients with sleep apnea, and to find new ways of treating the consequences of sleep apnea. He is equally passionate about the care of patients with critical illness, and in teaching residents and fellows about the management of these patients. Dr. Jun is honored and humbled to receive the James B Skatrud New Investigator Award, and acknowledges the support he has received from his mentor, co-workers, and family.
