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Education Innovation Day Reaffirms Rewarding of Excellence
Professors Tae-Eog Lee and Il-Chul Moon from the Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering received the Linkgenesis Best Teacher Award and the Soo-Young Lee Teaching Innovation Award on May 10. They were each awarded with 10 million KRW in prize money during the Education Innovation Day ceremony held at the Chung Kun-mo conference hall.
The award was endowed by KAIST Alumni Scholarship Chairman Hyung-Kyu Lim and KAIST Foundation Chairman Soo-Young Lee to support the innovation initiative and acknowledge faculty members who made significant contributions to educational innovation and benefited the general public though their innovations.
“KAIST’s vision for excellence and commitment to innovation is a game changer. Educational innovation is one of five pillars of Vision 2031, and it is our priority to foster critical and creative thinking students,” said President Sung-Chul Shin at the ceremony. All the awardees made presentation on their innovative projects and shared their ideas on better pedagogical methodology for next generation.
Professor Lee, dean of the KAIST Academy and the head of the Center for Excellence in Learning & Teaching was recognized for his contribution to enhancing educational quality through innovative learning and teaching methodology development. He has set up an Education 3.0 Initiative, an online education platform for flipped learning at KAIST.
Professor Moon also upgraded the online education platform to the 4.0 version and extended KAIST’s massive online courses through KOOC framework. This open platform offers more than 62 courses, with more than 170 thousand users registered since 2014.
Professor Song-Hong Park from the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering and Professor Jae-Woo Lee from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering also won the Excellence Award.
2019.05.10 View 7103 -
KAIST Identifies the Cause of Sepsis-induced Lung Injury
(Professor Pilhan Kim from the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering)
A KAIST research team succeeded in visualizing pulmonary microcirculation and circulating cells in vivo with a custom-built 3D intravital lung microscopic imaging system. They found a type of leukocyte called neutrophils aggregate inside the capillaries during sepsis-induced acute lung injury (ALI), leading to disturbances and dead space in blood microcirculation.
According to the researchers, this phenomenon is responsible for tissue hypoxia causing lung damage in the sepsis model, and mitigating neutrophils improves microcirculation as well as hypoxia.
The lungs are responsible for exchanging oxygen with carbon dioxide gases during the breathing process, providing an essential function for sustaining life. This gas exchange occurs in the alveoli, each surrounded by many capillaries containing the circulating red blood cells.
Researchers have been making efforts to observe microcirculation in alveoli, but it has been technically challenging to capture high-resolution images of capillaries and red blood cells inside the lungs that are in constant breathing motion.
Professor Pilhan Kim from the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering and his team developed an ultra-fast laser scanning confocal microscope and an imaging chamber that could minimize the movement of a lung while preserving its respiratory state. They used this technology to successfully capture red blood cell circulation inside the capillaries of animal models with sepsis.
During the process, they found that hypoxia was induced by the increase of dead space inside the lungs of a sepsis model, a space where red blood cells do not circulate. This phenomenon is due to the neutrophils aggregating and trapping inside the capillaries and the arterioles. It was also shown that trapped neutrophils damage the lung tissue in the sepsis model by inhibiting microcirculation as well as releasing reactive oxygen species.
Further studies showed that the aggregated neutrophils inside pulmonary vessels exhibit a higher expression of the Mac-1 receptor (CD11b/CD18), which is a receptor involved in intercellular adhesion, compared to the neutrophils that normally circulate. Additionally, they confirmed that Mac-1 inhibitors can improve inhibited microcirculation, ameliorate hypoxia, while reducing pulmonary edema in the sepsis model.
Their high-resolution 3D intravital microscope technology allows the real-time imaging of living cells inside the lungs. This work is expected to be used in research on various lung diseases, including sepsis.
The research team’s pulmonary circulation imaging and precise analytical techniques will be used as the base technology for developing new diagnostic technologies, evaluating new therapeutic agents for various diseases related to microcirculation.
Professor Kim said, “In the ALI model, the inhibition of pulmonary microcirculation occurs due to neutrophils. By controlling this effect and improving microcirculation, it is possible to eliminate hypoxia and pulmonary edema – a new, effective strategy for treating patients with sepsis.”
Their 3D intravital microscope technology was commercialized through IVIM Technology, Inc., which is a faculty startup at KAIST. They released an all-in-one intravital microscope model called ‘IVM-CM’ and ‘IVM-C’. This next-generation imaging equipment for basic biomedical research on the complex pathophysiology of various human diseases will play a crucial role in the future global bio-health market.
This research, led by Dr. Inwon Park from the Department of Emergency Medicine at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital and formally the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering at KAIST, was published in the European Respiratory Journal (2019, 53:1800736) on March 28, 2019.
Figure 1. Custom-built high-speed real-time intravital microscope platform
Figure 2. Illustrative schematic and photo of a 3D intravital lung microscopic imaging system
Figure 3. Aggregation of neutrophils and consequent flow disturbance in pulmonary arteriole in sepsis-induced lung injury
2019.05.07 View 43457 -
Research Day Highlights Most Outstanding Research Achievements
Professor Byung Jin Cho from the School of Electrical Engineering was selected as the Grand Research Prize Winner in recognition of his innovative research achievement in the fields of nano electric and flexible energy devices during the 2019 KAIST Research Day ceremony held on April 23 at the Chung Kunmo Conference Hall.
The ten most outstanding research achievements from the past year were also awarded in the three areas of Research, Innovation, Convergence Researches.
Professor Cho is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of future nano and energy device technology. Professor Cho’s team has continued to research on advanced CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductors). CMOS has become his key research topic over the past three decades.
In 2014, he developed a glass fabric-based thermoelectric generator, which is extremely light and flexible and produces electricity from the heat of the human body. It is so flexible that the allowable bending radius of the generator is as low as 20 mm. There are no changes in performance even if the generator bends upward and downward for up to 120 cycles. His wearable thermoelectric generator was selected as one of the top ten most promising digital technologies by the Netexplo Forum in 2015.
He now is working on high-performance and ultra-flexible CMOS IC for biomedical applications, expanding his scope to thermal haptic technology in VR using graphene-CMOS hybrid integrated circuits; to self-powered wireless sensor nodes and self-powered ECG system using wearable thermoelectric generators .
In his special lecture at the ceremony, Professor Cho stressed the importance of collaboration in making scientific research and presented how he moved to future devices after focusing on scaling the devices.
“When I started the research on semiconductors, I focused on how to scale the device down as much as possible. For decades, we have conducted a number of procedures to produce tiny but efficient materials. Now we have shifted to develop flexible thermoelements and wearable devices,” said Professor Cho.
“We all thought the scaling down is the only way to create value-added technological breakthroughs. Now, the devices have been scaled down to 7nm and will go down to 5 nm soon. Over the past few years, I think we have gone through all the possible technological breakthroughs for reducing the size to 5nm. The semiconductor devices are made of more 1 billion transistors and go through 1,000 technological processes. So, there won’t be any possible way for a single genius to make a huge breakthrough. Without collaboration with others, it is nearly impossible to make any new technological breakthroughs.”
Professor Cho has published more than 240 papers in renowned academic journals and presented more than 300 papers at academic conferences. He has also registered approximately 50 patents in the field of semiconductor device technology.
The top ten research highlights of 2018 as follows:
- Rydberg-Atom Quantum Simulator Development by Professor Jaewook Ahn and Heung-Sun Sim from the Department of Physics
- From C-H to C-C Bonds at Room Temperature by Professor Mu-Hyun Baik from the Department of Chemistry
- The Role of Rodlike Counterions on the Interactions of DNAs by Professor Yong Woon Kim of the Graduate School of Nanoscience and Technology
- The Medal Preoptic Area Induces Hunting-Like Behaviors to Target Objects and Prey by Professor Daesoo Kim from the Department of Biological Sciences
- Identification of the Origin of Brain Tumors and New Therapeutic Strategy by Professor Jeong Ho Lee from the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering
- The Linear Frequency Conversion of Light at a Spatiotemporal Boundary by Professor Bumki Min from the Department of Mechanical Engineering
- An Industrial Grade Flexible Transparent Force Touch Sensor by Professor Jun-Bo Yoon from the School of Electrical Engineering
- The Detection and Clustering of Mixed-Type Defect Patterns in Wafer Bin Maps by Professor Heeyoung Kim from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
- The Development of a Reconfigurable Spin-Based Logic Device by Professor Byong-Guk Park from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering
- The Development of a Miniaturized X-Ray Tube Based on Carbon Nanotube and Electronic Brachytherapy Device by Professor Sung Oh Cho from the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering
Professor YongKeun Park from the Department of Physics and Professor In-Chel Park from the School of Electrical Engineering received the Research Award. For the Innovation Award, Professor Munchurl Kim from the School of Electrical Engineering was the recipient and the Convergence Research Awards was conferred to Professor Sung-Yool Choi from the School of Electrical Engineering, Professor Sung Gap Im from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Professor SangHee Park from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering during the ceremony.
For more on KAIST’s Top Research Achievements and Highlight of 2018, please refer to the attached below. click.
2019.04.25 View 13658 -
Professor Ji-Hyun Lee Awarded the Sasada Prize
Professor Ji-Hyun Lee from the Graduate School of Culture Technology was awarded the Sasada Prize during the 24th annual Conference of Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA) held in Wellington, New Zealand on April 15.
The Sasada Award honors the late Professor Tsuyoshi Sasada (1941-2005), the former Professor of Osaka University and co-founder and fellow of CAADRIA. It is given to an individual who has contributed to the next generation of researchers and academics, to the wider profession and practice in computer-aided design and research, and has earned recognition in the academic community.
Professor Lee was recognized for her development of CAAD (Computer-Aided Architectural Design) through her research work on the land price precision system using case-based reasoning. Her research team proposed a model for estimating the average apartment price in an administrative district after collecting 40 variables from the six major Korean cities, excluding Seoul and Ulsan. Their follow-up studies showed the possibility of replacing existing experts’ predictions.
Professor Lee has been steadily researching for 20 years on case-based reasoning (CBR), a field of artificial intelligence, and has published more than 40 papers in the field of CBR. Meanwhile, the CAAD Future 2019 event will be held at KAIST in June.
2019.04.23 View 5420 -
Chair Professor Seong Honored with Don Miller Award
(Professor Poong-Hyun Seong)
Chair Professor Poong-Hyun Seong from the Department of Nuclear & Quantum Engineering was selected as the recipient of the Don Miller Award by the American Nuclear Society.
The award, established in 2009 by the American Nuclear Society in honor of former ANS President Don Miller, is given to an individual or team who has made a significant contribution to the advancement of one or both of the fields of nuclear instrumentation and control of human-machine interfaces through individual or combined activities. The award ceremony will be held on June 10 during the 2019 annual meeting of the ANS in Minneapolis in the US.
Professor Seong is being recognized for his pioneering research and training in the fields of nuclear instrumentation control and human factor engineering at Korea. His research significantly contributed to safety improvements in nuclear power plants and have been recognized worldwide. Professor Seong, a fellow of the ANS, now serves as the first vice chair of the International Nuclear Societies Council and will take up the role of chair in 2021.
Professor Seong said that, “ Korea is one of the most outstanding countries working on research in the fields of nuclear instrumentation control and human factors. KAIST PhDs are teaching at many universities at home and abroad. I look forward this award bringing new hope to our nuclear research and the domestic nuclear industry, which is now in difficult times.”
2019.04.11 View 4240 -
KAIST-KU Joint Research Center for Smart Healthcare & Transportation
(President Shin shakes hands with KU acting Presidedent Arif Al Hammdi at the KAIST-KU Joint Research Center opening ceremony on April 8.)
KAIST opened the KAIST-Khalifa University Joint Research Center with Khalifa University on April 8. The opening ceremony was held at Khalifa University and was attended by President Sung-Chul Shin and Khalifa University Acting President Arif Al Hammadi.
The new research center reflects the evolution of the long-established partnership between the two institutions. The two universities have already made very close collaborations in research and education in the fields of nuclear and quantum engineering.
The launch of this center expanded their fields of collaboration to smart healthcare and smart transportation, key emerging sectors in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. President Shin signed an MOU with the UAE Minister of State for Advanced Science Sarah Amiri and Khalifa University to expand mutual collaboration in technology development and fostering human capital last year.
The center will conduct research and education on autonomous vehicles, infrastructure for autonomous vehicle operation, wireless charging for electric vehicles, and infrastructure for electric autonomous vehicles. As for smart healthcare, the center will focus on healthcare robotics as well as sensors and wearable devices for personal healthcare services.
President Shin, who accompanied a research team from the Graduate School of Green Transportation, said, “We are very delighted to enter into this expanded collaboration with KU. This partnership justifies our long-standing collaboration in the areas of emerging technologies in the Fourth Industrial Revolution while fostering human capital.”
KU Acting President Arif Al Hammadi added, “The outcome of these research projects will establish the status of both institutions as champions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, bringing benefits to our communities. We believe the new research center will further consolidate our status as a globally active, research-intensive academic institution, developing international collaborations that benefit the community in general.”
2019.04.09 View 6782 -
Unravelling Inherent Electrocatalysis to Improve the Performance of Hydrogen Fuel Cells
(Figure 1. Electrode structure for the precise evaluation of the metal nanoparticles’ electrochemical catalytic characteristics at a high temperature.)
A KAIST team presented an ideal electrode design to enhance the performance of high-temperature fuel cells. The new analytical platform with advanced nanoscale patterning method quantitatively revealed the electrochemical value of metal nanoparticles dispersed on the oxide electrode, thus leading to electrode design directions that can be used in a variety of eco-friendly energy technologies.
The team, working under Professor WooChul Jung and Professor Sang Ouk Kim at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, described an accurate analysis of the reactivity of oxide electrodes boosted by metal nanoparticles, where all particles participate in the reaction. They identified how the metal catalysts activate hydrogen electro-oxidation on the ceria-based electrode surface and quantify how rapidly the reaction rate increases with the proper choice of metals.
Metal nanoparticles with diameters of 10 nanometers or less have become a key component in high-performance heterogeneous catalysts, primarily serving as a catalytic activator. Recent experimental and theoretical findings suggest that the optimization of the chemical nature at the metal and support interfaces is essential for performance improvement.
However, the high cost associated with cell fabrication and operation as well as poorer stability of metal nanoparticles at high temperatures have been a long-standing challenge. To solve this problem, the team utilized a globally recognized metal nano patterning technology that uses block copolymer self-assembled nano templates and succeeded in uniformly synthesizing metal particles 10 nanometers in size on the surface of oxide fuel cell electrodes. They also developed a technology to accurately analyze the catalyst characteristics of single particles at high temperatures and maximize the performance of a fuel cell with minimal catalyst use.
The research team confirmed that platinum, which is a commonly used metal catalyst, could boost fuel cell performance by as much as 21 times even at an amount of 300 nanograms, which only costs about 0.015 KRW.
The team quantitatively identified and compared the characteristics of widely used metal catalysts other than platinum, such as palladium, gold, and cobalt, and also elucidated the precise principle of catalyst performance through theoretical analysis.
(Figure 2. Comparison of the electrochemical catalytic characteristics for various 10nm metal nanoparticles (platinum, palladium, cobalt, gold) at a high temperature.)
Professor Jung said, "We have broken the conventional methods of increasing the amount of catalyst which have deemed inefficient and expensive. Our results suggest a clear idea for high performance fuel cells using very small amounts of nanoparticles. This technology can be applied to many different industrial fields, advancing the commercialization of eco-friendly energy technologies such as fuel cells that generate electricity and electrolytic cells that produce hydrogen from water.”
The research has been published as the cover article of Nature Nanotechnology in the March issue. This research was carried out with support from the Nano-Material Technology Development Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea.
2019.03.28 View 29329 -
Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee Honored with the 23rd NAEK Award
(Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)
Distinguished Professor Sang Yup Lee from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering was honored to be the laureate of the 23rd NAEK Award.
The NAEK (National Academy of Engineering of Korea) Award was instituted in 1997 to honor and recognize engineers who have made significant contributions to the development of the engineering and technology field at universities, industries, and institutions. Every year, it is conferred to only one person who has achieved original and world-leading research that has led to national development.
Distinguished Professor Lee is a pioneering scholar of the field of systems metabolic engineering and he was recognized for his significant achievements in the biochemical industry by developing novel microbial bioprocesses. In particular, he is globally renowned for biological plastic synthesis, making or decomposing polymers with microorganisms instead of using fossil resources.
He has produced numerous high-quality research breakthroughs in metabolic and systems engineering. In 2016, he produced an easily degradable plastic with Escherichia coli (E. coli). In 2018, he successfully produced aromatic polyesters, the main material for PET (poly ethylene terephthalate) from E. coli strains. He also identified microorganism structures for PET degradation and improved its degradability with a novel variant.
His research was ranked number one in the research and development division of Top Ten Science and Technology News 2018 announced by Korean Federation of Science & Technology Societies. He is one of highly cited researchers (HCR) ranked in the top 1% by citations for their field by the Clarivate Analytics.
2019.03.21 View 6882 -
Wafer-Scale Multilayer Fabrication of Silk Fibroin-Based Microelectronics
A KAIST research team developed a novel fabrication method for the multilayer processing of silk-based microelectronics. This technology for creating a biodegradable silk fibroin film allows microfabrication with polymer or metal structures manufactured from photolithography. It can be a key technology in the implementation of silk fibroin-based biodegradable electronic devices or localized drug delivery through silk fibroin patterns.
Silk fibroins are biocompatible, biodegradable, transparent, and flexible, which makes them excellent candidates for implantable biomedical devices, and they have also been used as biodegradable films and functional microstructures in biomedical applications. However, conventional microfabrication processes require strong etching solutions and solvents to modify the structure of silk fibroins.
To prevent the silk fibroin from being damaged during the process, Professor Hyunjoo J. Lee from the School of Electrical Engineering and her team came up with a novel process, named aluminum hard mask on silk fibroin (AMoS), which is capable of micropatterning multiple layers composed of both fibroin and inorganic materials, such as metal and dielectrics with high-precision microscale alignment. The AMoS process can make silk fibroin patterns on devices, or make patterns on silk fibroin thin films with other materials by using photolithography, which is a core technology in the current microfabrication process.
The team successfully cultured primary neurons on the processed silk fibroin micro-patterns, and confirmed that silk fibroin has excellent biocompatibility before and after the fabrication process and that it also can be applied to implanted biological devices.
Through this technology, the team realized the multilayer micropatterning of fibroin films on a silk fibroin substrate and fabricated a biodegradable microelectric circuit consisting of resistors and silk fibroin dielectric capacitors in a silicon wafer with large areas.
They also used this technology to position the micro-pattern of the silk fibroin thin film closer to the flexible polymer-based brain electrode, and confirmed the dye molecules mounted on the silk fibroin were transferred successfully from the micropatterns.
Professor Lee said, “This technology facilitates wafer-scale, large-area processing of sensitive materials. We expect it to be applied to a wide range of biomedical devices in the future. Using the silk fibroin with micro-patterned brain electrodes can open up many new possibilities in research on brain circuits by mounting drugs that restrict or promote brain cell activities.”
This research, in collaboration with Dr. Nakwon Choi from KIST and led by PhD candidate Geon Kook, was published in ACS AMI (10.1021/acsami.8b13170) on January 16, 2019.
Figure 1. The cover page of ACS AMI
Figure 2. Fibroin microstructures and metal patterns on a fibroin produced by using the AMoS mask.
Figure 3. Biocompatibility assessment of the AMoS Process. Top: Schematics image of a) fibroin-coated silicon b) fibroin-pattered silicon and c) gold-patterned fibroin. Bottom: Representative confocal microscopy images of live (green) and dead (red) primary cortical neurons cultured on the substrates.
2019.03.15 View 21290 -
The Future Mobility of the Year 2019
KAIST announced the Future Mobility of the Year (FMOTY) 2019. The winners are Volvo 360C, Toyota e-Palette, and Toyota Concept-i WALK.
FMOTY are the first awards that recognizes concept cars that exhibit innovative services and practical transportation technology in three categories: private mobility, public and commercial mobility, and personal mobility.
Figure 1. The winner in the private mobility division, the Volvo 360C
In the private mobility division, the award went to the Volvo 360C. With targeted routes of roughly 186 miles, this vehicle has an ambitious service goal to replace airplanes by traveling these routes with great comfort. Goro Okazaki, a journalist with Car and Driver Japan, said, “The Volvo 360C clearly shows how highly personalized autonomous driving can change the future.”
Figure 2. The winner in the public mobility division, the Toyota e-Palette
The Toyota e-Palette was the winning car in commercial mobility division. This vehicle provides the best solution as a mobile service platform by transforming itself into mobile hospitals, hotels, stores and food trucks. Carlo Calderón, a journalist for Autopista Spain, said, “It has a great strength in remodeling its indoor and outdoor spaces according to various commercial uses.”
Figure 3. The winner in the personal mobility division, the Toyota Concept-i WALK
In the personal mobility division, the award went to the Toyota Concept-i WALK. It was recognized for having an exquisite user environment and artificial intelligent agent, along with an excellent completion. Jun Miao, a journalist with MJ CarShow China, said, “It is aesthetically pleasing. Beyond the upright control of conventional personal mobility, it allows agile control with a joystick.”
FMOTY conducted a screening process for 45 concept cars over three months and 16 renowned automotive experts from 11 countries participated as judges for this award, including Editor in Chief of BBC Top Gear Magazine Charlie Turner and European Bureau Chief of Automobile Magazine Georg Kacher. The judges said that FMOTY was born to propose a new aspect of future mobility, and in terms of evaluating technical and social values of concept cars, FMOTY carries great significance.
Kyung-soo Kim, Dean of the Cho Chun Shik Graduate School of Green Transportation said, “Globally renowned experts in the automotive field participated as judges to elevate the prestige and fairness of the awards. KAIST members were excluded from the entire judging process. I believe that the FMOTY Awards will expand public attention from the present to the future.”
Details can be found on the official website of FMOTY ( www.fmoty.org ).
2019.03.11 View 5631 -
Blue-enriched White Light to Wake You Up in the Morning
(from left: Professor Hyun Jung Chung, Professor Hyeon-Jeong Suk, Taesu Kim and Professor Kyungah Choi)
Here is a good news for those of who have difficulty with morning alertness. A KAIST research team proposed that a blue-enriched LED light can effectively help people overcome morning drowsiness. This study will provide the basis for major changes in future lighting strategies and thereby help create better indoor environments.
Considerable research has been devoted to unmasking circadian rhythms. The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young for unveiling the molecular mechanisms that control circadian rhythms. In particular, the relationship between light and its physiological effects has been investigated since the discovery of a novel, third type of photoreceptor in the human retina in the early 2000s. Rods and cones regulate visual effects, while the third type, photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, regulate a large variety of biological and behavioral processes including melatonin and cortisol secretion, alertness, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Initial studies on light sources have shown that blue monochromatic, fully saturated lights are effective for stimulating physiological responses, but the relative effectiveness of commercially available white light sources is less well understood. Moreover, the research was more focused on the negative effects of blue light; for instance, when people are exposed to blue light at night, they have trouble achieving deep sleep because the light restrains melatonin secretion.
However, Professor Hyeon-Jeong Suk and Professor Kyungah Choi from the Department of Industrial Design and their team argue that the effects of blue-enriched morning light on physiological responses are time dependent, and that it has positive effects on melatonin levels and the subjective perception of alertness, mood, and visual comfort compared with warm white light.
The team conducted an experiment with 15 university students. They investigated whether an hour of morning light exposure with different chromaticity would affect their physiological and subjective responses differently. The decline of melatonin levels was significantly greater after the exposure to blue-enriched white light in comparison with warm white light.
Professor Suk said, “Light takes a huge part of our lives since we spend most of our time indoors. Light is one of the most powerful tools to affect changes in how we perceive and experience the environment around us.”
Professor Choi added, “When we investigate all of the psychological and physiological effects of light, we see there is much more to light than just efficient quantities. I believe that human-centric lighting strategies could be applied to a variety of environments, including residential areas, learning environments, and working spaces to improve our everyday lives.”
This research was collaborated with Professor Hyun Jung Chung from the Graduate School of Nanoscience and Technology and was published in Scientific Reports (10.1038/s41598-018-36791-5) on January 23, 2019.
Figure 1. Changes in melatonin secretion during day and night time
2019.03.06 View 10500 -
New Catalyst for Synthesizing Chiral Molecules Selectively
(from left: Dr. Yoonsu Park and Professor Sukbok Chang from the Department of Chemistry)
Molecules in nature often have “twin” molecules that look identical. In particular, the twin molecules that look like mirror images to each other are called enantiomers. However, even though they have the same type and number of elements, these twin molecules exhibit completely different properties.
Professor Sukbok Chang and Dr. Yoonsu Park from the Department of Chemistry developed a new catalyst capable of selectively synthesizing only one of the two enantiomers. Using this catalyst, the have succeeded in manufacturing the chiral lactam, an essential ingredient in pharmaceuticals, from a hydrocarbon compound.
Enantiomerism or chirality is considered very important for drug development. Biomaterials, such as DNAs and proteins also have chiral properties, but they exhibit different physiological activities depending on the types of drugs. One type of the enantiomer could be useful while the other is toxic. Hence, the technology for selective synthesizing (i.e. asymmetric synthesis) is required, but it is still regarded as a great challenge faced by modern chemistry to date.
The researchers solved this problem by developing a new catalyst. Earlier they presented their research on developing an iridium catalyst that converts hydrocarbons into high value γ-lactam compounds, and published it in Science in March 2018. However, the developed catalyst still had a limitation that both types of enantiomers are obtained without selectivity.
In this study, they found that among dozens of other catalyst candidates, iridium catalysts with chiral diamine scaffolds were able to select the correct enantiomer with a selectivity of 99% or more. This novel catalyst can be used to synthesize the various chiral γ-lactam as required. A left-handed γ-lactam and a right-handed γ-lactam can be produced using a left-handed iridium catalyst and a right-handed iridium catalyst, respectively.
They analyzed the reason for the high selectivity through computational chemistry simulations. They identified that temporal hydrogen bonding occurred between the chiral diamine catalysts and the hydrocarbon compound during the reaction. As a result of the hydrogen bonding, the formation of the left-handed lactam was boosted.
With their new catalyst, they also succeeded in synthesizing chiral lactam compounds with different structures. By using inexpensive and readily available feedstock hydrocarbons, the researchers produced a group of chiral lactams in different shapes. As their chirality and diverse structures enable lactams to function as an active compound in the body for antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, or anti-tumoral functions, this study may facilitate the development of potential drugs in a more efficient and cheaper way.
Professor Chang said, “We hope that our research on selectively producing core units of effective drugs will lead to developing new drugs that demonstrate fewer side-effects and higher efficacy. There are also economic advantages of this research because it uses hydrocarbon compounds, which can be abundantly found in nature, to produce high-value raw materials.
This research was published in Nature Catalysis(10.1038/s41929-019-0230-x) on February 19, 2019.
Figure 1. Asymmetric formation of chiral γ-lactam
Figure 2. Outline of research outcome
2019.03.05 View 6732