Chronobiology+Lab
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Professor Joonho Choe Appointed as the President of the KSMCB
Professor Joonho Choe of the Biological Sciences Department at KAIST has been elected the 25th president of Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology (KSMCB).
His presidency will last one year, beginning on January 1, 2016.
Established in 1989, the Society has served as the largest academic gathering in the field of life sciences, holding an international conference every fall. It has more than 12,400 fellows.
Professor Choe served as the vice president of KSMC as well as the editor of its journal, Molecules and Cells.
He said, “The 2016 International Conference of the KSMCB will take place on October 12-14, 2016 at the COEX Convention and Exhibition Hall in Seoul. This year, we are preparing 20 symposiums and will invite four international renowned keynote speakers in the field including a Nobel Laureate. We hope many people, students and young researchers in particular, from academia and industry will join the conference.”
Professor Choe received his doctoral degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) after graduating from Seoul National University with his bachelor and master’s degrees.
2016.01.05 View 7073 -
'Scientist-Engineer of the Month' for December: Professor Choi Joon Ho
Professor Choi Joon Ho (department of Biological Sciences) was made ‘Scientist-Engineer of December’ for his discovery of new gene (twenty-four) that helps biorhythm and proving that this gene helps control biorhythm.
Professor Choi published 100 dissertations over the past 25 years and made significant advancements in the field of molecular virus and neurobiology.
In 1995 Professor Choi uncovered the fact that the NS3 protein in C type hepatitis function as RNA helicase thereby opening the path to developing a cure for C type hepatitis; this is an international patent with Chiron corporation. The result was published in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications Journal and was the most domestically referred to dissertation in biological sciences in 1999.
In addition Professor Choi published in Nature magazine in 1999, a dissertation that uncovered the fact that the DNA of papillomar virus has another protein (hSNF5) that direct it apart from ordinary proteins.
In 2000~2005 Professor Choi published many dissertations in journals like Immunity, Cancer Research, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Oncogene, Journal of Virology, and etc.
Professor Choi screened over 10,000 species of pomace fly mutations and discovered the twenty-four gene that affects the biorhythm of pomace flies. He analyzed this gene further and found a new function that was different from known biorhythm mechanisms.
This research allowed a better understanding of biological clock of pomace flies and therefore was another step towards better understanding the control mechanism of human biological clock.
2012.01.31 View 8800 -
New Bio-Clock gene and its function found
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced that a Korean research team has found a new gene responsible for maintaining the bio-clock (twenty-four) and its mechanism.
Twnety-four was led by Professor Choi Joon Ho and Dr. Lee Jong Bin of KAIST (department of Biology) and was a joint operation with Professor Ravi Allada and Dr.Lim Jeong Hoon of Northwestern University (department of neurobiology) and the result was published in ‘Nature’ magazine.
The research team experimented with transformed small fruit flies for 4 years and found that there was an undiscovered gene that deals with the bio rhythm in the brain which they named ‘twenty-four’.
The understanding with genes prior to twenty-four was that these genes regulate biorhythm in the transcription phase (DNA to mRNA). Twenty-four operates in the step after transcription when the ribosome creates proteins. Especially twenty-four has a great effect on the ‘period protein’ which acts as a sub-atomic clock that regulates the rhythm and life of each cell.
The experiment was innovational in that it was able to scientifically prove the function of the protein produced by the gene.
The result is expected to help solve the problems associated with sleep disorders, jetlags, eating rhythms, bio rhythms, etc.
The name twenty-four was the fact that a day, a cycle, is 24 hours long and the gene’s serial numbers CG4857 adds up to twenty four.
2011.02.23 View 10917