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Thinking Out of the Box: KAIST Silicon Valley Innovation Platform
KAIST established a liaison office in San Jose, California, to support the entrepreneurship of KAIST graduates, students, and faculty who aspire to transform their innovative ideas into business.
The office, KAIST Silicon Valley Innovation Platform (SVIP), is located within the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) IT Center on North First Street in San Jose.
SVIP collects information and analyzes trends on emerging technologies; provides various educational programs on entrepreneurship and technology translation; offers opportunities to prospective entrepreneurs to engage with industry and research and government organizations; and assists Korean startups in accessing the US and North American market.
President Steve Kang attended the opening ceremony of the office on June 14th and encouraged KAIST alumni living in the US to share their ideas and technology innovations and transform them into business opportunities.
For more information, please contact Professor Soung-Hie Kim (seekim@business.kaist.ac.kr) from the Graduate School of Information and Media Management, KAIST.
2013.07.04 View 8037 -
Nanofiber sensor detects diabetes or lung cancer faster and easier
Metal-oxide nanofiber based chemiresistive gas sensors offer greater usability for portable real-time breath tests that can be available on smart phones or tablet PCs in the near future.
Daejeon, Republic of Korea, June 11, 2013 -- Today"s technological innovation enables smartphone users to diagnose serious diseases such as diabetes or lung cancer quickly and effectively by simply breathing into a small gadget, a nanofiber breathing sensor, mounted on the phones.
Il-Doo Kim, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Department at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), and his research team have recently published a cover paper entitled "Thin-Wall Assembled SnO2 Fibers Functionalized by Catalytic Pt Nanoparticles and their Superior Exhaled Breath-Sensing Properties for the Diagnosis of Diabetes," in an academic journal, Advanced Functional Materials (May 20th issue), on the development of a highly sensitive exhaled breath sensor by using hierarchical SnO2 fibers that are assembled from wrinkled thin SnO2 nanotubes.
In the paper, the research team presented a morphological evolution of SnO2 fibers, called micro phase-separations, which takes place between polymers and other dissolved solutes when varying the flow rate of an electrospinning solution feed and applying a subsequent heat treatment afterward.
The morphological change results in nanofibers that are shaped like an open cylinder inside which thin-film SnO2 nanotubes are layered and then rolled up. A number of elongated pores ranging from 10 nanometers (nm) to 500 nm in length along the fiber direction were formed on the surface of the SnO2 fibers, allowing exhaled gas molecules to easily permeate the fibers. The inner and outer wall of SnO2 tubes is evenly coated with catalytic platinum (Pt) nanoparticles. According to the research team, highly porous SnO2 fibers, synthesized by eletrospinning at a high flow rate, showed five-fold higher acetone responses than that of the dense SnO2 nanofibers created under a low flow rate. The catalytic Pt coating shortened the fibers" gas response time dramatically as well.
The breath analysis for diabetes is largely based on an acetone breath test because acetone is one of the specific volatile organic compounds (VOC) produced in the human body to signal the onset of particular diseases. In other words, they are biomarkers to predict certain diseases such as acetone for diabetes, toluene for lung cancer, and ammonia for kidney malfunction. Breath analysis for medical evaluation has attracted much attention because it is less intrusive than conventional medical examination, as well as fast and convenient, and environmentally friendly, leaving almost no biohazard wastes.
Various gas-sensing techniques have been adopted to analyze VOCs including gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS), but these techniques are difficult to incorporate into portable real-time gas sensors because the testing equipment is bulky and expensive, and their operation is more complex. Metal-oxide based chemiresistive gas sensors, however, offer greater usability for portable real-time breath sensors.
Il-Doo Kim said, "Catalyst-loaded metal oxide nanofibers synthesized by electrospinning have a great potential for future exhaled breath sensor applications. From our research, we obtained the results that Pt-coated SnO2 fibers are able to identify promptly and accurately acetone or toluene even at very low concentration less than 100 parts per billion (ppb)."
The exhaled acetone level of diabetes patients exceeds 1.8 parts per million (ppm), which is two to six-fold higher than that (0.3-0.9 ppm) of healthy people. Therefore, a highly sensitive detection that responds to acetone below 1 ppm, in the presence of other exhaled gases as well as under the humid environment of human breath, is important for an accurate diagnosis of diabetes. In addition, Professor Kim said, "a trace concentration of toluene (30 ppb) in exhaled breath is regarded to be a distinctive early symptom of lung cancer, which we were able to detect with our prototype breath tester."
The research team has now been developing an array of breathing sensors using various catalysts and a number of semiconducting metal oxide fibers, which will offer patients a real-time easy diagnosis of diseases.
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Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Hr11dRryg
For further inquires:
Il-Doo Kim, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, KAIST
Advanced Nanomaterials and Energy Laboratory
Tel: +82-42-350-3329
Email: idkim@kaist.ac.kr
Clockwise from left to right: left upper shows a magnified SEM image of a broken thin-wall assembled SnO2 fiber. Left below is an array of breath sensors (Inset is an actual size of a breath sensor). The right is the cover of Advanced Functional Materials (May 20th issue) in which a research paper on the development of a highly sensitive exhaled breath sensor by using SnO2 fibers is published.
This is the microstructural evolution of SnO2 nanofibers as a function of flow rate during electrospinning.
2013.06.20 View 13367 -
Professor Jay H. Lee to receive the 2013 AIChE CAST Computing in Chemical Engineering Award
Professor Jay H. Lee of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at KAIST has won the 2013 Computing in Chemical Engineering Award of AIChE"s CAST Division (AIChE, American Institute of Chemical Engineers and CAST, Computing & Systems Technology Division).
The CAST Computing in Chemical Engineering Award, sponsored by The Dow Chemical Company, is annually given to an individual who has made outstanding contributions in the application of computing and systems technology to chemical engineering.Professor Lee has been recognized for his pioneering research contributions for “novel paradigms for much improved and robust model predictive control in industrial processes.” He is currently the Head of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department and Director of Brain Korea (BK) 21 Program at the department. BK21 is the Korean government’s initiative to support the growth of research universities in the nation and foster highly trained master’s and doctoral students as well as researchers.
The CAST Computing in Chemical Engineering Award will be presented to Professor Jay H. Lee at the CAST Division dinner to be held at the AIChE Annual Meeting this November in San Francisco, where he will also deliver the after dinner lecture associated with this award.
2013.06.12 View 9350 -
A KAIST research team developed in vivo flexible large scale integrated circuits
Daejeon, Republic of Korea, May 6th, 2013–-A team led by Professor Keon Jae Lee from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at KAIST has developed in vivo silicon-based flexible large scale integrated circuits (LSI) for bio-medical wireless communication.
Silicon-based semiconductors have played significant roles in signal processing, nerve stimulation, memory storage, and wireless communication in implantable electronics. However, the rigid and bulky LSI chips have limited uses in in vivo devices due to incongruent contact with the curvilinear surfaces of human organs. Especially, artificial retinas recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (refer to the press release of FDA"s artificial retina approval) require extremely flexible and slim LSI to incorporate it within the cramped area of the human eye.
Although several research teams have fabricated flexible integrated circuits (ICs, tens of interconnected transistors) on plastics, their inaccurate nano-scale alignment on plastics has restricted the demonstration of flexible nano-transistors and their large scale interconnection for in vivo LSI applications such as main process unit (MPU), high density memory and wireless communication. Professor Lee"s team previously demonstrated fully functional flexible memory using ultrathin silicon membranes (Nano Letters, Flexible Memristive Memory Array on Plastic Substrates), however, its integration level and transistor size (over micron scale) have limited functional applications for flexible consumer electronics.
Professor Keon Jae Lee"s team fabricated radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) interconnected with thousand nano-transistors on silicon wafer by state-of-the-art CMOS process, and then they removed the entire bottom substrate except top 100 nm active circuit layer by wet chemical etching. The flexible RF switches for wireless communication were monolithically encapsulated with biocompatible liquid crystal polymers (LCPs) for in vivo bio-medical applications. Finally, they implanted the LCP encapsulated RFICs into live rats to demonstrate the stable operation of flexible devices under in vivo circumstances.
Professor Lee said, "This work could provide an approach to flexible LSI for an ideal artificial retina system and other bio-medical devices. Moreover, the result represents an exciting technology with the strong potential to realize fully flexible consumer electronics such as application processor (AP) for mobile operating system, high-capacity memory, and wireless communication in the near future."
This result was published in the May online issue of the American Chemical Society"s journal, ACS Nano (In vivo Flexible RFICs Monolithically Encapsulated with LCP). They are currently engaged in commercializing efforts of roll-to-roll printing of flexible LSI on large area plastic substrates.
Movie at Youtube Link: Fabrication process for flexible LSI for flexible display, wearable computer and artificial retina for in vivo biomedical application
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PpbM7m2PPs&feature=youtu.be
Applications of in Vivo Flexible Large Scale Integrated Circuits
Top: In vivo flexible large scale integrated circuits (LSI); Bottom: Schematic of roll-to-roll printing of flexible LSI on large area plastics.
2013.06.09 View 12337 -
International Student Conference (ICISTS-KAIST) to be Held in August
- 300 participants including university students worldwide and renowned speakers expected to gather
- Ideal coexistence of science & technology and society explored under the theme of “Perfect Alliance”
Science & technology and society are at the core of 21st century’s development. ICISTS-KAIST 2013, international conference for university students, seeks ways for the two to coexist harmoniously and is to be held from August 5 to 9 on KAIST campus as well as at Daejeon Convention Center.
ICISTS stands for International Conference for the Integration of Science, Technology and Society. ICISTS-KAIST is a non-profit organization run by KAIST students who are directly engaged in the coordination, planning, finance, public relations, and management of this academic event. The upcoming ninth annual event of ICISTS (www.icists.org) 2013 is centered around the theme, “Perfect Alliance: Coexistence for Human Society.” The conference will last for four nights and five days; scholars and students across various academic backgrounds gather to narrow the gap between fields of study and discuss possible solutions to the problems in today’s society.
The annual conference, ICISTS-KAIST attracts hundreds of participants from all over the world to KAIST, Daejeon and its most recent event last year witnessed discussions among some 300 students from 22 countries hearing the lectures from 40 academics and scholars. This year’s event will welcome the 16-year old inventor, scientist, and cancer researcher Jack Thomas Andraka, the founder of the “One Laptop Per Child” project Walter Bender, Chemistry Nobel Prize laureate Harold Walter Kroto, and many more.
The application period for ICISTS-KAIST 2013 runs from May 20 to July 12, and applications are received through the website at www.icists.org.
ICISTS-KAIST 2013 Promgram Summary
Event Title: International Conference for the Integration of Science, Technology and Society 2013 (ICISTS-KAIST 2013)
Theme: Perfect Alliance: Coexistence for Human Society
Date and Venue: 2013 Aug. 5 (Mon.) ~ Aug. 9 (Fri.), KAIST Campus and Daejeon Convention Center
Host and Organizer: ICISTS KAIST
Sponsor: Korean National Commission for UNESCO, Korea Tourism Organization, Korea Ministry of Education, Science & Technology, KOFST
Session Description:
Keynote Speech - Keynote address on fundamental approach to coexistence
Parallel Session - Multiple simultaneous lecture of delegates’ choice
Group Discussion - Small group discussions among delegates and speakers
Panel Discussion - In-depth and thought-revealing discussion among speakers
Experience Session - First-person experience on relevant technology
Team Project & Poster Fair - Team mission, poster exhibition and evaluation
Subtopics:
- New Values from Coexistence of Science & Technology and Society
- Synergetic Resolution via Coexistence of Science & Technology and Society
- Essential Communication for Coexistence of Science & Technology and Society
Notable Speakers:
- Gretchen Kalonji: Assistant to Director-General at UNESCO
- Sheila Jasanoff: Director of STS Program at Harvard Kennedy School
- Walter Bender: Former Director of MIT Media Lab and One Laptop Per Child- Jack Andraka: 16-year old Cancer Resesarcher
2013.05.31 View 8411 -
Complex responsible for protein breakdown in cells identified using Bio TEM
Professor Ho-Min Kim
- High resolution 3D structure analysis success using Bio Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), a giant step towards new anticancer treatment development
- Published in Nature on May 5th
Using TEM to observe protein molecules and analysing its high resolution 3D structure is now possible. KAIST Biomedical Science and Engineering Department’s Professor Ho-Min Kim has identified the high resolution structure of proteasome complexes, which is responsible for protein breakdown in cells, using Bio TEM.
This research has been published on the world"s most prestigious journal, Nature, online on May 5th. Our body controls many cellular processes through production and degradation of proteins to maintain homeostasis. A proteasome complex acts as a garbage disposal system and degrades cellular proteins when needed for regulation, which is one of the central roles of the body.
However, a mutation in proteasome complex leads to diseases such as cancer, degenerative brain diseases, and autoimmune diseases.
Currently, the anticancer drug Velcade is used to decrease proteasome function to treat Multiple Myeloma, a form of blood cancer. Research concerning proteasome complexes for more effective anticancer drugs and treatments with fewer side effects has been taking place for more than 20 years. There have been many difficulties in understanding proteasome function through 3D structure analysis since a proteasome complex, consisting of around 30 different proteins, has a great size and complexity.
The research team used Bio TEM instead of conventionally used protein crystallography technique. The protein sample was inserted into Bio TEM, hundreds of photographs were taken from various angles, and then a high–performance computer was used to analyse its structure. Bio TEM requires a smaller sample and can analyse the complexes of great size of proteins.
Professor Ho-Min Kim said, “Identifying proteasome complex assembly process and 3D structure will increase our understanding of cellular protein degradation process and hence assist in new drug development using this knowledge.” He added, “High resolution protein structure analysis using Bio TEM, used for the first time in Korea, will enable us to observe structure analysis of large protein complexes that were difficult to approach using protein crystallography.” Professor Kim continued, “If protein crystallography technology and Bio TEM could be used together to complement one another, it would bring a great synergetic effect to protein complex 3D structure analysis research in the future.”
Professor Ho-Min Kim has conducted this research since his post-doctorate at the University of California, San Francisco, under the advice of Professor Yifan Cheng; in co-operation with Harvard University and Colorado University.
Figure 1: A picture taken by Bio TEM of open state protein sample (proteasome complex)
Figure 2: Bio TEM image analysis showing protein 3D structure
2013.05.25 View 10176 -
KAIST Holds Robot Taekwondo Competition Recognized by the World Taekwondo Federation
KAIST will host the 12th Intelligent System-on-Chip (SoC) Robot War in October 2013, a robot competition. The event will have two entries: robot Taekwondo contest and HURO competition.
The World Taekwondo Federation has decided to offer an honorary Taekwondo degree to the winner of SoC Taekwondo Robot competition.
The Intelligent SoC Robot War was created in 2002 by KAIST’s Professor Hoi-Jun Yoo in the Department of Electrical Engineering.
For SoC Taekwondo Robot event, two robots compete in the form of Taekwondo, traditional Korean martial arts. The robots competing in this event have a camera and semiconductor chips on board, and therefore they have the brain-like functions to identify an object and control movements on their own. The robots have 21 joints with humanoid robot technology on their body for the techniques needed to compete in a typical Taekwondo match. They employ moves such as front kicks, side kicks, and upper punches.
In particular, KAIST’s System Design Innovation & Application Research Center, the organizer of this competition, has operated a team to demonstrate robot Taekwondo since last year with the purpose of displaying the basic movements of Taekwondo.
“Robots received attention as the source of growth in the near future. We have been developing robotics technology, and as part of our endeavor, preparing the Taekwondo demonstration team since 2012 to exhibit Korea’s robot technology and introduce our traditional martial arts,” said Professor Hoi-Jun Yoo. “We will continue to develop various capabilities for Taekwondo robots in cooperation with the World Taekwondo Federation.”
In HURO-Competition, robots compete for crossing the finishing line first by completing various missions, such as putting in a golf ball or overcoming obstacles while avoiding unexpected accidents. The winning team is awarded with a Presidential Award of Korea.
The 12th Intelligent SoC Robot War Competition is open to all graduate or undergraduate students. For details, visit the homepage at http://www.socrobotwar.org/.
2013.05.06 View 9937 -
KAIST hosts 2013 Wearable Computer Contest
2013 Wearable Computer Contest (WCC) will be held in early November. This year’s contest is hosted by KAIST and sponsored by Samsung Electronics.
Wearable computers are drawing attention in the IT world as a potentially convenient information and communication device for future generations, which are attached to clothing or on the body. As smartphones have grown increasingly more popular, various supporting devices are being developed. The IT industry is targeting wearable computers for future development. The main leaders of the field, Samsung, Apple (i-Watch) and Google (Google Glasses) are joining the race for its development.
European and US firms halted their research in wearable computers in the 2000s, but there has been a great burst of interest recently. Korea has been consistently taking on wearable computer research since 2003 and held the Wearable Computer Contest for the last nine years. Since 2005, the contest aims to promote leading edge technological research and Intellectual Property (IP) as well as cultivate a professional workforce in Korea. The contest has promoted world class research in the field of wearable computer technology.
Moreover, KAIST has increased support for its competing teams through Samsung sponsorship and is considering applying the technology from the contest into Samsung products. Winning teams receive 1,500,000 Korean won and Samsung smart IT devices to produce an actual wearable computer. KAIST has increased the number of members who can participate in the competing teams in the finals from 10 to 15 to provide more opportunities to develop wearable computers.
With the theme “Smart IT: Any-information for Anybody,” the 2013 Wearable Computer Contest requires competing teams to suggest an innovative idea which combines IT and fashion for wearable computers. Teams that pass the paper and presentation evaluation go on to the finals, where 15 teams will have four months of production period for the final evaluation in November.
The final teams also receive systematic education on ubiquitous computing, wearable computer platforms, and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).
The Wearable Computer Contest is holding an ideas contest pitched in a poster format. This contest evaluates proposals for wearable computers, and there is no requirement to enter the rest of the contest. Anyone can compete without having to physically make the product.
More information on the registration and the contest can be found at http://www.ufcom.org/.
2013.04.30 View 7226
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Award Winning Portable Sound Camera Design
- A member of KAIST’s faculty has won the “Red Dot Design Award,” one of three of the most prestigious design competitions in the world, for the portable sound camera.
KAIST’s Industrial Design Professor Suk-Hyung Bae’s portable sound camera design, made by SM Instruments and Hyundai, has received a “Red Dot Design Award: Product Design,” one of the most prestigious design competitions in the world.
If you are a driver, you must have experienced unexplained noises in your car. Most industrial products, including cars, may produce abnormal noises caused by an error in design or worn-out machinery. However, it is difficult to identify the exact location of the sound with ears alone.
This is where the sound camera comes in. Just as thermal detector cameras show the distribution of temperature, sound cameras use a microphone arrangement to express the distribution of sound and to find the location of the sound. However, existing sound cameras are not only too big and heavy, their assembly and installation are complex and must be fixed on a tripod. These limitations made it impossible to measure noises from small areas or the base of cars.
The newly developed product is an all-in-one system resolving the inconvenience of assembling the microphone before taking measurements. Moreover, the handle in the middle is ergonomically designed so users can balance its weight with one hand. The two handles on the sides work as a support and enable the user to hold the camera in various ways.
At the award ceremony, Professor Suk-Hyung Bae commented, “The effective combination of cutting edge technology and design components has been recognized.” He also said, “It shows the competency of the KAIST’s Department of Industrial Design, which has a high understanding of science and technology.”
On the other hand, SM Instruments is a sound vibration specialist company which got its start from KAIST’s Technology Business Incubation Centre in 2006 and earned its independence by gaining proprietary technology in only two years. SM Instruments is contributing to developing national sound and vibration technology through relentless change and innovation. ;
Figure 1: Red Dot Design Award winning the portable sound camera, SeeSV-S205
Figure 2: Identifying the location of the noise using the portable sound camera
Figure 3: The image showing the sound distribution using the portable sound camera
2013.04.09 View 18973 -
KAIST develops a low-power 60 GHz radio frequency chip for mobile devices
As the capacity of handheld devices increases to accommodate a greater number of functions, these devices have more memory, larger display screens, and the ability to play higher definition video files. If the users of mobile devices, including smartphones, tablet PCs, and notebooks, want to share or transfer data on one device with that of another device, a great deal of time and effort are needed.
As a possible method for the speedy transmission of large data, researchers are studying the adoption of gigabits per second (Gbps) wireless communications operating over the 60 gigahertz (GHz) frequency band. Some commercial approaches have been introduced for full-HD video streaming from a fixed source to a display by using the 60 GHz band. But mobile applications have not been developed yet because the 60 GHz radio frequency (RF) circuit consumes hundreds of milliwatts (mW) of DC power.
Professor Chul Soon Park from the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and his research team recently developed a low-power version of the 60 GHz radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC). Inside the circuit are an energy-efficient modulator performing amplification as well as modulation and a sensitivity-improved receiver employing a gain boosting demodulator.
The research team said that their RFIC draws as little as 67 mW of power in the 60 GHz frequency band, consuming 31mW to send and 36mW to receive large volumes of data. RFIC is also small enough to be mounted on smartphones or notebooks, requiring only one chip (its width, length, and height are about 1 mm) and one antenna (4x5x1 mm3) for sending and receiving data with an integrated switch.
Professor Park, Director of the Intelligent Radio Engineering Center at KAIST, gave an upbeat assessment of the potential of RFIC for future applications. What we have developed is a low-power 60-GHz RF chip with a transmission speed of 10.7 gigabits per second. In tests, we were able to stream uncompressed full-HD videos from a smartphone or notebook to a display without a cable connection (Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PVSLBhMymc). Our chip can be installed on mobile devices or even on cameras so that the devices are virtually connected to other devices and able to exchange large data with each other."
2013.04.02 View 8095
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The new era of personalized cancer diagnosis and treatment
Professor Tae-Young Yoon
- Succeeded in observing carcinogenic protein at the molecular level
- “Paved the way to customized cancer treatment through accurate analysis of carcinogenic protein”
The joint KAIST research team of Professor Tae Young Yoon of the Department of Physics and Professor Won Do Huh of the Department of Biological Sciences have developed the technology to monitor characteristics of carcinogenic protein in cancer tissue – for the first time in the world.
The technology makes it possible to analyse the mechanism of cancer development through a small amount of carcinogenic protein from a cancer patient. Therefore, a personalised approach to diagnosis and treatment using the knowledge of the specific mechanism of cancer development in the patient may be possible in the future.
Until recently, modern medicine could only speculate on the cause of cancer through statistics. Although developed countries, such as the United States, are known to use a large sequencing technology that analyses the patient’s DNA, identification of the interactions between proteins responsible for causing cancer remained an unanswered question for a long time in medicine.
Firstly, Professor Yoon’s research team has developed a fluorescent microscope that can observe even a single molecule. Then, the “Immunoprecipitation method”, a technology to extract a specific protein exploiting the high affinity between antigens and antibodies was developed. Using this technology and the microscope, “Real-Time Single Molecule co-Immunoprecipitation Method” was created. In this way, the team succeeded in observing the interactions between carcinogenic and other proteins at a molecular level, in real time.
To validate the developed technology, the team investigated Ras, a carcinogenic protein; its mutation statistically is known to cause around 30% of cancers.
The experimental results confirmed that 30-50% of Ras protein was expressed in mouse tumour and human cancer cells. In normal cells, less than 5% of Ras protein was expressed. Thus, the experiment showed that unusual increase in activation of Ras protein induces cancer.
The increase in the ratio of active Ras protein can be inferred from existing research data but the measurement of specific numerical data has never been done before.
The team suggested a new molecular level diagnosis technique of identifying the progress of cancer in patients through measuring the percentage of activated carcinogenic protein in cancer tissue.
Professor Yoon Tae-young said, “This newly developed technology does not require a separate procedure of protein expression or refining, hence the existing proteins in real biological tissues or cancer cells can be observed directly.” He also said, “Since carcinogenic protein can be analyzed accurately, it has opened up the path to customized cancer treatment in the future.”
“Since the observation is possible on a molecular level, the technology confers the advantage that researchers can carry out various examinations on a small sample of the cancer patient.” He added, “The clinical trial will start in December 2012 and in a few years customized cancer diagnosis and treatment will be possible.”
Meanwhile, the research has been published in Nature Communications (February 19). Many researchers from various fields have participated, regardless of the differences in their speciality, and successfully produced interdisciplinary research. Professor Tae Young Yoon of the Department of Physics and Professors Dae Sik Lim and Won Do Huh of Biological Sciences at KAIST, and Professor Chang Bong Hyun of Computational Science of KIAS contributed to developing the technique.
Figure 1: Schematic diagram of observed interactions at the molecular level in real time using fluorescent microscope. The carcinogenic protein from a mouse tumour is fixed on the microchip, and its molecular characteristics are observed live.
Figure 2: Molecular interaction data using a molecular level fluorescent microscope. A signal in the form of spike is shown when two proteins combine. This is monitored live using an Electron Multiplying Charge Coupled Device (EMCCD). It shows signal results in bright dots.
An organism has an immune system as a defence mechanism to foreign intruders. The immune system is activated when unwanted pathogens or foreign protein are in the body. Antibodies form in recognition of the specific antigen to protect itself. Organisms evolved to form antibodies with high specificity to a certain antigen. Antibodies only react to its complementary antigens. The field of molecular biology uses the affinity between antigens and antibodies to extract specific proteins; a technology called immunoprecipitation. Even in a mixture of many proteins, the protein sought can be extracted using antibodies. Thus immunoprecipitation is widely used to detect pathogens or to extract specific proteins.
Technology co-IP is a well-known example that uses immunoprecipitation. The research on interactions between proteins uses co-IP in general. The basis of fixing the antigen on the antibody to extract antigen protein is the same as immunoprecipitation. Then, researchers inject and observe its reaction with the partner protein to observe the interactions and precipitate the antibodies. If the reaction occurs, the partner protein will be found with the antibodies in the precipitations. If not, then the partner protein will not be found. This shows that the two proteins interact.
However, the traditional co-IP can be used to infer the interactions between the two proteins although the information of the dynamics on how the reaction occurs is lost. To overcome these shortcomings, the Real-Time Single Molecule co-IP Method enables observation on individual protein level in real time. Therefore, the significance of the new technique is in making observation of interactions more direct and quantitative.
Additional Figure 1: Comparison between Conventional co-IP and Real-Time Single Molecule co-IP
2013.04.01 View 17109 -
Ligand Recognition Mechanism of Protein Identified
Professor Hak-Sung Kim
-“Solved the 50 year old mystery of how protein recognises and binds to ligands”
- Exciting potential for understanding life phenomena and the further development of highly effective therapeutic agent development
KAIST’s Biological Science Department’s Professor Hak-Sung Kim, working in collaboration with Professor Sung-Chul Hong of Department of Physics, Seoul National University, has identified the mechanism of how the protein recognizes and binds to ligands within the human body.
The research findings were published in the online edition of Nature Chemical Biology (March 18), which is the most prestigious journal in the field of life science.
Since the research identified the mechanism, of which protein recognises and binds to ligands, it will take an essential role in understanding complex life phenomenon by understanding regulatory function of protein.
Also, ligand recognition of proteins is closely related to the cause of various diseases. Therefore the research team hopes to contribute to the development of highly effective treatments.
Ligands, well-known examples include nucleic acid and proteins, form the structure of an organism or are essential constituents with special functions such as information signalling.
In particular, the most important role of protein is recognising and binding to a particular ligand and hence regulating and maintaining life phenomena. The abnormal occurrence of an error in recognition of ligands may lead to various diseases.
The research team focused on the repetition of change in protein structure from the most stable “open form” to a relatively unstable “partially closed form”.
Professor Kim’s team analysed the change in protein structure when binding to a ligand on a molecular level in real time to explain the ligand recognition mechanism.
The research findings showed that ligands prefer the most stable protein structure. The team was the first in the world to identify that ligands alter protein structure to the most stable, the lowest energy level, when it binds to the protein.
In addition, the team found that ligands bind to unstable partially-closed forms to change protein structure.
The existing models to explain ligand recognition mechanism of protein are “Induced Custom Model”, which involves change in protein structure in binding to ligands, and the “Structure Selection Model”, which argues that ligands select and recognise only the best protein structure out of many. The academic world considers that the team’s research findings have perfectly proved the models through experiments for the first time in the world.
Professor Kim explained, “In the presence of ligands, there exists a phenomenon where the speed of altering protein structure is changed. This phenomenon is analysed on a molecular level to prove ligand recognition mechanism of protein for the first time”. He also said, “The 50-year old mystery, that existed only as a hypothesis on biology textbooks and was thought never to be solved, has been confirmed through experiments for the first time.”
Figure 1: Proteins, with open and partially open form, recognising and binding to ligands.
Figure 2: Ligands temporarily bind to a stable protein structure, open form, which changes into the most stable structure, closed form. In addition, binding to partially closed form also changes protein structure to closed form.
2013.04.01 View 10332