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Class of '79 Donates 2 Billion KRW at Homecoming Event
The class of 1979 held a reunion on May 25 at the College of Business at the KAIST Seoul campus, which was the main campus when they were students 40 years ago. These leaders, who now serve in diverse sectors of academia, research, business, and industry both in Korea and abroad, held a homecoming event in celebration of the 40th anniversary of their graduation.
At the event, Chairman Chong-Don Kim of Miwon Commercial, who was representing their class, donated 2 billion KRW toward the KAIST development fund.
Chairman Kim reminisced saying, “Today’s event takes my friends and I back in time and reminds us of our old school days here at KAIST. It means a lot to us to re-visit the campus with grateful hearts for our alma mater.” He continued, “We raised this fund in the spirit of ‘Honor KAIST’, hoping for KAIST to continue to grow towards its vision of becoming a world-leading institution. Our class always has and forever will dearly support KAIST with all our hearts.”
‘Honor KAIST’ is an alumni-led spontaneous donation campaign first initiated in 2015 by the class of ’75, the first group of masters students who graduated from KAIST, with the aim of raising 1 trillion KRW fund for the development of KAIST.
President Sung-Chul Shin responded, “The deep contributions and consistent engagement being made by our alumni groups for KAIST’s institutional growth is truly beneficial, far beyond what meets the eye. The entire school would like to express our sincere gratitude to the class of ’79 for your generous donation which will serve as a run-up for the university's many future initiatives.”
More than 100 graduates and emeritus professors including Professor Jae-Kyoon Kim and Professor Choong-Ki Kim from the School of Electrical Engineering, as well as Chairman of the KAIST Alumni Association Dr. Ki-Chul Cha, were able to attend.
2019.05.31 View 4057 -
Professor Cheol-Ho Jeong Honored with the DTU Lecturer of the Year
A KAIST alumnus and an associate professor at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Dr. Cheol-Ho Jeong was selected as the recipient of the Lecturer of the Year 2019 Award by DTU.
Professor Jeong received his B.S., M.Sc., and Ph. D. degrees from KAIST’s Department of Mechanical Engineering in August 2007 under the supervision of Professor Jeong-Guon Ih, and has been serving as an assistant followed by associate professor at DTU’s Department of Electrical Engineering since October 2007. His research covers wide arrays of architectural acoustics, environmental acoustics, psychoacoustics, and structural acoustics. Every year, the students at DTU nominate one or two lecturer(s) of the year. The award celebrates and honors the selected lecturers for showing great commitment not only to education itself, but also to their communication and engagement with the students.
This year, the DTU student union Polyteknisk Forening nominated Professor Jeong for his outstanding course evaluations for his excellent teaching over the years. One of the student testimonies for the award read, "Professor Jeong is one of the best teachers I have ever had at DTU. He is very humane and approachable."
The awards ceremony was held on May 3 at DTU during the 2019 Annual Commemoration Party and Professor Jeong was warmly congratulated by the Crown Prince Couple of Denmark. The other award was given to Professor Robert Madsen from DTU’s Chemistry department.
©Photo and Quote: Ulrik Jantzen, Büro Jantzen, Camilla Christiane Hermann.
2019.05.30 View 5766 -
Professor Yim Decorated with the Chongjo Order of Merit
Professor Yong-Taek Yim from the Department of Mechanical Engineering was awarded the highest order of merit, the “Chongjo Keunjong Medal,” bestowed to public officials by the government in celebration of Invention Day on May 27.
Professor Yim was recognized for his innovative achievements to increase royalty income by introducing an IP-based management system at the Korean Institute of Machinery & Materials. He served as the president of KIMM for three years from 2014.
His idea led to new approaches to help explore diverse revenue creating sources such as dividend earnings and share sales, apart from simply relying on technology transfer fees. His efforts to disseminate the in-house R&D results also led to the foundation of six tech-based startups and spinoffs, which generated 11.2 billion KRW in sales. He also helped set up three spinoffs abroad.
Professor Yim said, “I pushed employee invention as a new value creator at KIMM. I thank each and every researcher and staff member at KIMM who worked so hard to create such an innovative IP-based R&D environment.”
2019.05.28 View 5698 -
5 Biomarkers for Overcoming Colorectal Cancer Drug Resistance Identified
< Professor Kwang-Hyun Cho's Team >
KAIST researchers have identified five biomarkers that will help them address resistance to cancer-targeting therapeutics. This new treatment strategy will bring us one step closer to precision medicine for patients who showed resistance.
Colorectal cancer is one of the most common types of cancer worldwide. The number of patients has surpassed 1 million, and its five-year survival rate significantly drops to about 20 percent when metastasized. In Korea, the surge of colorectal cancer has been the highest in the last 10 years due to increasing Westernized dietary patterns and obesity. It is expected that the number and mortality rates of colorectal cancer patients will increase sharply as the nation is rapidly facing an increase in its aging population.
Recently, anticancer agents targeting only specific molecules of colon cancer cells have been developed. Unlike conventional anticancer medications, these selectively treat only specific target factors, so they can significantly reduce some of the side-effects of anticancer therapy while enhancing drug efficacy.
Cetuximab is the most well-known FDA approved anticancer medication. It is a biomarker that predicts drug reactivity and utilizes the presence of the ‘KRAS’ gene mutation. Cetuximab is prescribed to patients who don’t carry the KRAS gene mutation.
However, even in patients without the KRAS gene mutation, the response rate of Cetuximab is only about fifty percent, and there is also resistance to drugs after targeted chemotherapy. Compared with conventional chemotherapy alone, the life expectancy only lasts five months on average.
In research featured in the FEBS Journal as the cover paper for the April 7 edition, the KAIST research team led by Professor Kwang-Hyun Cho at the Department of Bio and Brain Engineering presented five additional biomarkers that could increase Cetuximab responsiveness using systems biology approach that combines genomic data analysis, mathematical modeling, and cell experiments. The experimental inhibition of newly discovered biomarkers DUSP4, ETV5, GNB5, NT5E, and PHLDA1 in colorectal cancer cells has been shown to overcome Cetuximab resistance in KRAS-normal genes. The research team confirmed that when suppressing GNB5, one of the new biomarkers, it was shown to overcome resistance to Cetuximab regardless of having a mutation in the KRAS gene.
Professor Cho said, “There has not been an example of colorectal cancer treatment involving regulation of the GNB5 gene.” He continued, “Identifying the principle of drug resistance in cancer cells through systems biology and discovering new biomarkers that could be a new molecular target to overcome drug resistance suggest real potential to actualize precision medicine.”
This study was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) and funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (2017R1A2A1A17069642 and 2015M3A9A7067220).
Image 1. The cover of FEBS Journal for April 2019
2019.05.27 View 57326 -
'Think Out of the Box,' Team Circos Wins the P4G Innovation Sprint
<The winning team of the P4G Innovation Sprint poses with the Crown Prince of Denmark (sixth from the left in the first row) and President Shin (fifth from the left in the first row) during the awarding ceremony.>
Team Circos from KAIST and Denmark made a new sustainable business model for Hempel, a global coating supplier group in Denmark, and won the first prize at the P4G (the Partnership for Green Growth and Global Goals) Innovation Sprint held at KAIST’s Seoul campus on May 22. The six-member team was awarded one million KRW in prize money by the Crown Prince of Denmark. Two of winning team members have the privilege of traveling to visit Hempel in Denmark.
The winning team thought outside the box, inspired by box wine which reduced the sales price from traditional bottled wine. Six teams made up of members from different academic disciplines spent two nights and three days brainstorming ways to resolve the challenges of corporations such as Velux and Hempel from Denmark and SK from Korea.
The P4G Innovation Sprint is one of the events co-hosted by KAIST and Technological University of Denmark in celebration of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations establishment between Denmark and Korea and the 8th anniversary of the Green Growth Alliance between the two countries. The Crown Prince Couple also made a royal visit to Korea in honor of the 60th anniversary celebration and Green Growth Alliance between the two countries.
This Innovation Sprint aimed to develop young academics’ perspectives, skills, and talents for the next generation to better research the Sustainable Development Goals set by UN.
Three teams made their final five-minute pitches before the Crown Prince and President Sung-Chul
Shin and responded to questions from the four-member jury.
The Crown Prince of Denmark and President Shin both agreed that the collaborative and convergent ideas will address global problems.
The Crown Prince stressed in his congratulatory remarks the importance of partnership in this polarizing world to achieve sustainable improvements saying, “Partnerships are only possible to sustain through collaboration and hard work while staying curious, creative, and critical. " He also shared the special relationship with KAIST. His father-in-law Professor John Donaldson used to be a visiting professor of applied mathmatics at KAIST back in 2003.
President Shin added, “Collaboration across boundaries is most critical for responding to these issues. In that sense, this P4G Innovation Sprint is a shining example for demonstrating the collaborative efforts between teammates from diverse disciplines. When we work together and build convergent ideas, we will be more innovative and go further.”
<Winning team member Nicolai Thorball from DTU pitches at the final in the presence of the Crown Prince of Denmark and KAIST President Shin.>
“The canned packaging in the paint industry results in 40 times more carbon emission in the course of production. However, when using aluminum packaging which is recyclable, the waste amount will be cut dramatically,” pitched Nicolai Thorball from DTU on exchange at Seoul National University. Nicolai, whose major is environmental engineering, is one of two Danish students including Thomsen Xandra Flyvbjerg from the University of Southern Denmark. Flyvbjergy, majoring in business, is now on exchange at Sungkynkwan University.
“I am very glad to have the chance to understand the concept of the circular economy and green growth at the sprint. It was also very challenging to make ideation from so many ideas brainstormed,” said Dong-Eun Lee, a KAIST undergraduate from the Department of Biological Sciences. He said that he learned a lot from his two other teammates who are from the Program of Green Business & Policy at KAIST College of Business, Jae-Hee Park and Kyung-Hyun Kim. Juho Park majoring in mechanical engineering at KAIST was one of the team.
Circos’ solution for a sustainable model received acclaim from the jury members. DTU Senior Vice President Marianne Thellerson, one of jurors, claimed their model has very high market feasibility, saying, “Their idea could be commercialized right now into the market.” Professor Hee-Kyung Park from KAIST who helped participants’ ideation as one of four mentors said, “The winning team perfectly met all the components of the evaluation criteria, Solution, Acceleration, and Pitch.”
At this sprint, 10 students from Denmark and 29 KAIST students were divided into 6 teams and given the challenges of three companies. The Danish window facility company Velux presented its future glass window system and the paint company Hempel their circular economic new business model. SK challenged the students to help it become a global clean energy solution company. The event was based on a hacker blueprint that found the optimal solution to the topics proposed.
2019.05.23 View 7597 -
Professor Yim Appointed As Associate Editor of Nuclear Technology
Professor Man-Sung Yim from the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering was appointed as the associate editor (for the Asian region) of Nuclear Technology ― a leading international research journal of the American Nuclear Society. Professor Yim will serve his term for three years from May 2019.
The American Nuclear Society, established in 1954, is comprised of more than 11,000 global members and aims to advance nuclear science, engineering, and technology while supporting the peaceful and beneficial applications of nuclear energy. Since its first publication in 1971, Nuclear Technology has been a representative journal of the society, reporting state-of-the-art information on all phases of the practical applications of nuclear technology.
Professor Yim is being recognized worldwide for his pioneering nuclear education, research, and policy studies in the fields of non-proliferation, safeguards for severe accident management, and waste management. He served as the head professor of the Department of Nuclear and Quantum Engineering and established the Nonproliferation Education and Research Center (NEREC) at KAIST.
Professor Yim remarked, “Asia has an important role to play at the forefront of the world’s nuclear research considering that nuclear development is most actively being carried out in the Asian region these days.”
2019.05.17 View 6139 -
Engineered Microbial Production of Grape Flavoring
(Image 1: Engineered bacteria that produce grape flavoring.)
Researchers report a microbial method for producing an artificial grape flavor. Methyl anthranilate (MANT) is a common grape flavoring and odorant compound currently produced through a petroleum-based process that uses large volumes of toxic acid catalysts.
Professor Sang-Yup Lee’s team at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering demonstrated production of MANT, a naturally occurring compound, via engineered bacteria. The authors engineered strains of Escherichia coli and Corynebacetrium glutamicum to produce MANT through a plant-based engineered metabolic pathway.
The authors tuned the bacterial metabolic pathway by optimizing the levels of AAMT1, the key enzyme in the process. To maximize production of MANT, the authors tested six strategies, including increasing the supply of a precursor compound and enhancing the availability of a co-substrate. The most productive strategy proved to be a two-phase extractive culture, in which MANT was extracted into a solvent. This strategy produced MANT on the scale of 4.47 to 5.74 grams per liter, a significant amount, considering that engineered microbes produce most natural products at a scale of milligrams or micrograms per liter.
According to the authors, the results suggest that MANT and other related molecules produced through industrial processes can be produced at scale by engineered microbes in a manner that would allow them to be marketed as natural one, instead of artificial one.
This study, featured at the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA on May 13, was supported by the Technology Development Program to Solve Climate Changes on Systems Metabolic Engineering for Biorefineries from the Ministry of Science and ICT.
(Image 2. Overview of the strategies applied for the microbial production of grape flavoring.)
2019.05.15 View 52625 -
Professor Park at UPC-Barcelona Tech Receives Jeong Hun Cho Award
Professor Hyuk Park was honored to be the recipient of the Jeong Hun Cho Award which was presented at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya Barcelona Tech. The award recognizes young scientists in the field of aerospace engineering.
Professor Park, a graduate of KAIST’s Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2001, earned his MS and PhD at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, and works at the Castelldefels School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering at UPC-Barcelona Tech. He won this year’s award, which honors former PhD candidate Jeong Hun Cho at the Aerospace Engineering Department who died in a lab accident in 2003. Professor Park also received 25 million KRW prize money. Cho’s family endowed the award and scholarship in his memory. Since 2005, the scholarship has selected three young scholars every year who specialize in aerospace engineering from Cho’s alma maters of KAIST, Korea University, and Kongju National University High School.
Professor Park was selected as this year’s awardee in recognition of his studies of synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) satellite radiometer system, remote sensing radio frequency interference reduction system development, and 3CAT series research.
The Award Committee also chose three students for scholarships: PhD candidate Sang-Woo Chung from the Department of Aerospace Engineering at KAIST with 4 million KRW, PhD candidate Eun-Hee Kang from the School of Mechanical Engineering at Korea University with 4 million KRW, and Chan-Ho Song from Kongju National University High School with 3 million KRW.
2019.05.14 View 6029 -
Autophagy in Dendritic Cells Helps Anticancer Activity
Autophagy contributes to the homeostasis of a cell and recently another function of autophagy has been reported. A KAIST research team found that the autophagy of dendritic cells supports T-cell anticancer activity.
Autophagy is a process of maintaining cell homeostasis by removing cellular waste and damaged cellular organelles; nevertheless, its role in the presentation of phagocytized tumor-associated antigens remains vague.
Meanwhile, dendritic cells are the ones that recognize pathogens or cancer antigens, and induce immune responses in T cells. When cancer cells are killed by radiation or an anticancer drug, dendritic cells absorb and remove them and present antigens on their surface to transfer them to T-cells.
Professor Heung Kyu Lee from the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering and his team found that the autophagy of dendritic cells plays a key role in T-cell activation and they proposed the principles of enhancing anti-cancer effects.
Their experiments showed that T-cell activation of dendritic cells as well as anticancer immune response dropped when there is a deficiency of Atg5 (autophagy-related) in dendritic cells.
Interestingly, Atg5-deficient dendritic cells significantly elevated receptor CD36 on the surface of the cells, which increased the phagocytosis of apoptotic tumor cells yet restricted the activation of T-cells.
At this time, when introducing antibodies into the system in order to block the receptor CD36, the anti-tumor T-cell response increased substantially while tumor growth declined.
Professor Lee said, “This study allowed us to explore the role of autophagy in the anti-cancer immune response of T-cells. We look forward to developing targeted anti-cancer therapies using the receptor CD36.”
This research was published in Autophagy (10.1080/15548627.2019.1596493) on March 22, 2019.
Figure 1.Mechanism of autophagy in dendritic cells
Figure 2. A role of autophagy in dendritic cells
2019.05.13 View 49858 -
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 7017 -
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 43378 -
Nanomaterials Mimicking Natural Enzymes with Superior Catalytic Activity and Selectivity for Detecting Acetylcholine
(Professor Jinwoo Lee from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)
A KAIST research team doped nitrogen and boron into graphene to selectively increase peroxidase-like activity and succeeded in synthesizing a peroxidase-mimicking nanozyme with a low cost and superior catalytic activity. These nanomaterials can be applied for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
Enzymes are the main catalysts in our body and are widely used in bioassays. In particular, peroxidase, which oxidizes transparent colorimetric substrates to become a colored product in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, is the most common enzyme that is used in colorimetric bioassays.
However, natural enzymes consisting of proteins are unstable against temperature and pH, hard to synthesize, and costly. Nanozymes, on the other hand, do not consist of proteins, meaning the disadvantages of enzymes can be overcome with their robustness and high productivity. In contrast, most nanonzymes do not have selectivity; for example, peroxidase-mimicking nanozymes demonstrate oxidase-like activity that oxidizes colorimetric substrates in the absence of hydrogen peroxide, which keeps them away from precisely detecting the target materials, such as hydrogen peroxide.
Professor Jinwoo Lee from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and his team were able to synthesize a peroxidase-mimicking nanozyme with superior catalytic activity and selectivity toward hydrogen peroxide. Co-doping of nitrogen and boron into graphene, which has negligible peroxidase-like activity, selectively increased the peroxidase-like activity without oxidase-like activity to accurately mimic the nature peroxidase and has become a powerful candidate to replace the peroxidase.
The experimental results were also verified with computational chemistry. The nitrogen and boron co-doped graphene was also applied to the colorimetric detection of acetylcholine, which is an important neurotransmitter and successfully detected the acetylcholine even better than the nature peroxidase.
Professor Lee said, “We began to study nanozymes due to their potential for replacing existing enzymes. Through this study, we have secured core technologies to synthesize nanozymes that have high enzyme activity along with selectivity. We believe that they can be applied to effectively detect acetylcholine for quickly diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease.
This research, led by PhD Min Su Kim, was published in ACS Nano (10.1021/acsnano.8b09519) on March 25, 2019.
Figure 1. Comparison of the catalytic activities of various nanozymes and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) toward TMB and H₂O₂
Figure 2. Schematic illustration of NB-rGO Reactions in Bioassays
2019.04.30 View 36847