Bioengineering
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2008 New Year's Message from President
New Year’s Greeting
I would like to wish you and your family a prosperous and happy New Year. I also hope that 2008 will be a great year for KAIST.
2007: Year in Review
Thanks to all of your hard work and dedication, 2007 has been a productive year for KAIST. We have undertaken many difficult and challenging tasks in order to make KAIST one of the leading universities in the world. As president, I would like to express my deep appreciation to all members of our community for your many contributions. You have all worked effectively and with great dedication toward accomplishing many of our goals.
With your help, leadership, and support we have taken three major steps towards raising our standards. We have improved undergraduate education, created KAIST Institutes to undertake important interdisciplinary research, and improved our system of governance. I believe that these changes will make KAIST much stronger, increasing the intellectual productivity and performance of our students and faculty.
But our job is not done yet. We have far to go before reaching our goal of making KAIST one of the best universities in the world.
Goals of KAIST
KAIST is a great university. Its students are among the brightest young people in the world. We have a first-rate faculty. We have hard working staff, and KAIST benefits from the generous support of the Korean people. It is clear we have what it takes to be one of the leading universities in the world.
The history of science and technology teaches us that academia continually creates new intellectual fields to deal with emerging opportunities and to respond to societal needs. Universities that are most successful are those that are best at responding to our changing world. KAIST has the opportunity to become a leading university by searching for and solving important problems that require new approaches and new thinking.
There are many reasons KAIST should strive to be the best. Doing so will enable the university to attract the best students and resources, in an increasingly competitive and global academic environment. This will create an atmosphere of intellectual excitement and vigor benefiting both faculty and students. This environment will put our faculty and students in league with the world’s other leading universities’ experts.
Tasks Ahead
To this end, we still face formidable obstacles. However, we can overcome them through great resolve, ingenuity, planning, and sacrifice.
Without change, KAIST will of course continue to advance. But the world’s other leading universities are advancing exponentially faster. KAIST must do more to be in the same league. We must identify new opportunities in all areas, invest in innovative ideas, and lead the field in important areas of science and technology.
What we have done in 2007
We have already made progress towards these goals in 2007. Some of our efforts have been difficult and painful to implement.
a. Undergraduate education We introduced many measures to educate our students in a way that will prepare them to become future leaders. We have taken measures to make students more accountable for their actions, while also teaching them to be bi-modally functional in synthesis and analysis.
We have also pursued international collaborations by establishing dual degree programs, which will begin in 2008 with Carnegie Mellon and Georgia Institute of Technology. We are currently working to establish similar programs with European and Asian universities as well.
b. KAIST Institutes We have established research institutes to focus on KAIST’s current strengths. And we have also instituted “high risk/ high return” research-support programs to encourage creativity and innovation.
c. EEWS In order to address the most pressing concerns of the 21st century, we have begun major research support in areas related to energy, the environment, water and sustainability. These global problems require international collaboration, which we are actively seeking.
d. Governance We restructured KAIST into a department-centric system to enable those who know their fields best to be the primary decision makers. Departments will have the primary responsibility for personnel, finance, space, and education, all of which will be coordinated by the central administration for consistency and checks and balances. We will further develop this system, establishing deep roots in the years to come.
e. Buildings and Generous Donors We were extremely fortunate to find generous donors who were willing to provide the financial support for KAIST. I am personally very grateful to Dr. & Mr. Byiung Joon Park for the KI building, and Dr. & Mrs. Neil Papparlardo for the hospital and medical center. We are hoping to find other generous donors for the Sports Complex and other important undertakings of KAIST.
Tasks for 2008
In 2008, we must do the following:
1. Teach well.
2. Generate outstanding graduates who can function and compete in a global environment.
3. Produce outstanding research results by identifying important and challenging problems that require creative thinking, new ideas, and innovative paradigms to replace those that do not work any more.
4. Lead the field of science and engineering by anticipating future needs and opportunities.
5. Secure financial resources to compensate outstanding faculty and staff at a globally competitive scale and to maintain an infrastructure fit for research.
6. Increase the size of the faculty and student body to a more competitive level.
7. Recruit outstanding students, faculty and staff. 8. Build new facilities such as the Park Building for KAIST Institutes, the Pappalardo Hospital and Medical Center, the International House, and the Sports Complex.
To achieve these tasks, we have created the Five-Year Development Plan and have implemented new programs and policies with the support of the faculty, the students and the staff.
New Opportunities Ahead
We may have new opportunities to make major contributions in a number of different areas. Before implementing any new programs and policies, the faculty, staff, and administration must consider them carefully and evaluate them thoroughly.
I will discuss a few these opportunities that we should consider exploring:
1. Information Technology (IT)
The fact that IT is an important area does not need any elaboration. Korea is a leading IT nation. IT has changed the way people communicate, live and produce. It has increased the productivity of the world. IT will continue to evolve and let us do things that cannot be done today.
How will the field of IT change in the future? How should KAIST lead the change?
Much of the IT revolution consists of hard technologies such as advances in semiconductors, wireless communications, fiber optics, displays, communications technology (switching, networking, etc.), and others. Although these hard technologies will continue to be important and occupy the minds of our brightest engineers, they may evolve in the way the computer field has evolved. For example, in the past, the limited and costly storage of data occupied much of the thinking in the computer science and engineering field. Also the speed of microprocessors was a major limiting factor in the use of computers. However, today the cost of data storage is almost insignificant in comparison to other costs. Advances in data storage have changed the practice and opportunities in the field of computers. Similarly, the current limiting factors involving hardware and data transmission may cease to drive the IT field in the future. What may be equally important is the management and engineering of content that are generated optically, by software, and by the users in a network.
Examples of possible new directions in IT (in addition to traditional IT):
(a) KAIST should explore whether or not we need to create a new curriculum and a department for “content creation, management and engineering” and generate new kinds of graduates. (b) Another topic that may be considered as being a part of the IT content management issue is the healthcare and management. In this field, Professors WonJoon Kim (BEP), BumSoon Park and SoYoung Kim (Culture Science), and Taesik Lee (Industrial Engineering) are exploring how to deal with health-related issues which will require a new use of IT as well as other disciplines such as design and social science
2. Ocean Systems Engineering and Science
KAIST does not currently teach or conduct research on topics related to ocean, shipbuilding, and sea transportation systems, despite their importance in the 21st century.
Two-thirds of the earth is covered by water. It is the arbitrator of earth’s climate and holds abundant natural resources. It also provides the cheapest means of transporting goods. It may be the place to sequestrate excess materials such as CO2 that needs to be removed from the atmosphere and land. Furthermore, current shipping systems and harbor design may be outdated and inefficient. Yet research and education in ocean science and engineering are not responding to the current needs of society.
Shipbuilding is a very important industry to Korea. Korea builds more ships than any other nation, and ship-building contributes the most to the nation’s current account balance.
Further, it appears that the demand for ships will continue to increase as the global shipment of goods and natural resources by ships continues to increase with the rapid industrialization of China and India. With increases in international trade, the need to use the ocean transportation system is likely to grow and exceed the current capacity of the infrastructure.
KAIST should explore opportunities in areas related to shipbuilding, natural resource mining, sequestration of CO2 and deposition of other materials, ocean transportation systems, and environmental science and engineering of the ocean.
3. Life Science and Engineering
KAIST has made and will be making a major investment in biology, brain science, bioengineering, the ME/PhD program, and other life science and engineering fields. KAIST will be seeking a major funding for research in brain science and neuroscience from abroad as well as within Korea. We need to identify new opportunities to increase the productivity of these diverse investments. Right now, the collaboration and coordination between colleagues in the life sciences and engineering is not well organized, although the KI for the BioCentury is promoting multi-disciplinary research. There has to be a better integration from life science to life engineering and technology at KAIST if we are to convince funding agencies and foundations to give us major financial support and to attract outstanding scholars in this field to KAIST.
Concluding Remarks
In 2007, we worked hard to make KAIST one of the world’s top universities. We are moving in the right direction in enhancing our students’ long-term personal and professional growth, for advancement of science and engineering, for technological innovation, and for the future well being of humanity.
In 2008, we will continue to face new challenges that may appear to be beyond our capabilities, but we know we can achieve a lot when we work together. There are many things we have to do. We must continue to be creative in teaching and research, and we must use our resources wisely and frugally. We must support those amongst us, who are exceptionally creative and hard working, and continue to secure the necessary financial support to strengthen our educational and research programs.
Thank you again for your many important contributions.
I wish you and your family a most happy and prosperous New Year.
January 1, 2008 KAIST President Nam Pyo Suh
2007.12.31 View 13283 -
Professor Sang-Yup Lee Senior Editor of U.S. Biotechnology Journal
Professor Sang-Yup Lee Named Senior Editor of U.S. Biotechnology Journal
Will supervise paper examination in the fields of system biology, system bioengineering and
metabolic engineering, and set editing direction
Professor Sang-Yup Lee, LG Chemical’s Chair-Professor and the leader of BK project group of KAIST Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department, was named senior editor of Biotechnology Journal published by the U.S. Wiley-VCH.
Professor Lee will supervise paper examination in the fields of system biology, system bioengineering and metabolic engineering, and set and manage the editing direction of the journal.
‘Biotechnology Journal’ was first published in January 2006 to exchange rapidly-exchanging knowledge and information in life science and its relevant fields by Wiley, a world-famous science journal publisher with the history of 208 years (founded in 1799). Particularly, ‘Biotechnology Journal’ is a new-typed scientific journal treating various fields such as life science research-relevant ethics and cultures necessary for general people as well as expertise research information of life science.
“Although taking charge of editing of many scientific journals spends much time, it’s very fruitful that I’ll lead the direction of research papers of many world-famous scientific journals and I can make efforts to prevent outstanding papers by Korean scientists from being disadvantaged,” said Professor Lee.
“More Korean scholars are taking charge of editing jobs of world-famous scientific journals. It’s a good indication that the capacities of Korean science and engineering have been enhanced significantly as much,” a staff of KAIST PR team said.
Meanwhile, Professor Lee, distinguished by outstanding research performances in the fields of metabolic engineering and system life engineering, is now ▲associate editor of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, top scientific journal of biotech engineering published by the U.S. Wiley ▲editor of Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology published by German Springer ▲ associate editor of Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering by German Springer, and editing member of ▲ Journal of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology by Singapore’s World Scientific ▲ Asia Pacific Biotech News ▲ Biochemical Engineering Journal, Metabolic Engineering, and Microbial Cell Factory by Elsevier.
2007.02.02 View 15846
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Professor Eunjoon Kim's team finds synapse-forming protein
Professor Eunjoon Kim’s team finds synapse-forming protein
- discover a new protein ‘NGL’ that promotes the formation of neuronal synapses
- can presume the cause of various brain disorders including schizophrenia
- will be published at Nature Neuroscience Vol. 9 in September
A new protein that promotes the formation of synapses in human brains was discovered by a Korean research team.
The team led by Eunjoon Kim, Professor of Department of Biological Sciences and Head of Creative Research Group of Synapse Formation), announced that it had discovered a new fact that NGL protein promotes the formation of neuronal synapses and this fact would be published in Nature Neuroscience Vol. 9 on September 18.
Professor Kim’s team discovered that a membrane protein named ‘NGL’ located at post synapse links with other membrane protein named netrin-G in pre synapse, acting as crosslink, and promotes the formation of a new synapse.
‘NGL’ is the second protein found to crosslink synapse, following neuoroligin. With the discovery of this new protein, the principle of synapse formation and the causes of various brain disorders can be presumed.
In the human brain, about more than 100 billion neuron cells and about 10,000 synapses compose neural circuit. A synapse is the place where innervation occurs between neuron cells. The formation of synapse induces the formation of neural circuit, and neural circuit is deeply related with various brain disorders as well as normal development of brains or brain functions.
“As netrin-G linked with NGL is related with schizonphrenia and neuoroligin and synapse crosslinking protein having a similar function with NGL is deeply related with mental retardation and autism, I think NGL is related with various brain disorders including schizophrenia.”
<Explanation of attached photos>
■ Photo1: Experiment for confirming NGL’s ability to form synapse No. 1
Mix ordinary cell (green) revealing NGL at its surface and neuron cell. Axon grows toward NGL (ordinary cell) located in the middle of ten o’clock direction and meets NGL, where NGL induces the formation of pre synapse (red) in the contacting axon.
Whether pre synapse has been formed can be told by the fluorescent dying (red) of pre synapse protein named Synapsin.
- Figure a-b: formation of synapse by NGL
- Figure c-d: transformed NGL losing synapse forming ability cannot form synapse
■ Photo 2: Experiment for confirming NGL’s ability to form synapse No. 2
When beads coated with NGL are scattered on neuron cell, the beads contact with the axon of the neuron cell (the beads are clearly visible at the phase differentiation image in the middle panel). At this time, NGL induces the formation of pre synapse (red) in the axon. Whether pre synapse has been formed can be told by the fluorescent dying (red) of pre synapse protein named SynPhy (panel a) or VGlut1 (panel b).
2006.09.21 View 16448
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Professor Tae-Gwan Park awarded Minister Prize
Professor Tae-Gwan Park awarded Minister Prize
Professor Tae-Gwan Park (Department of Biological Sciences) was awarded the Minister Prize in the science innovation sector at the NANO KOREA 2006, which was opened on August 30.
This prize is given to researchers who have shown excellent research results in the field of Nanotechnology, and Professor Park was awarded the Minister Prize in recognition of his innovative achievements in the fields of Tissue Engineering, Drug Delivery, Gene Therapy, which are fusion technologies of NT and BT that utilize nanobiomaterials.
2006.09.06 View 15412
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Gene Protecting Brain Nerves Discovered
THE KOREA TIMES 2005.1.31By Kim Tae-gyu / Staff Reporter
South Korean scientists have for the first time discovered genes tasked with protecting brain nerves.
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology professor Kim Jae-seob said Sunday the new genes, named pyrexia, shield brain nerves from outside stimuli, including high temperatures.
``The channel gene of pyrexia will open the door to developing new-concept medicines for brain damage in patients of high fever or drug addicts,’’ he said.
The channel gene refers to transport proteins, which provide a static passageway for a variety of essential substances to enter into cells.
``Up until now, a lot of channel genes activated by temperatures have been identified. But among them, pyrexia is first that guards brain nerves from external stresses,’’ Kim said.
Kim’s team learned pyrexia plays a pivotal role in the body through experiments with genetically engineered flies that did not have any pyrexia.
Up to 60 percent of the pyrexia-depleted mutants were paralyzed within three minutes of exposure to a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius.
In comparison, just 9 percent of normal flies were paralyzed with the same stimulus, indicating pyrexia is responsible for protecting animals from high-temperature stress.
``Our next goal is to develop pyrexia-embedded drugs, which can be expected to commercially debut in about five years,’’ Kim said.
Kim has already applied for international patents for his medical breakthrough, which will be printed in the March edition of Nature Genetics, a science journal.
voc200@koreatimes.co.kr
2005.02.02 View 15384
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Nerve-protecting gene discovered
Korean scientists for the first time have identified a gene that blocks nerve damage from fevers and the use of narcotics, a state-run research institute said yesterday.
The finding may open the way for new medicine that can prevent the loss of brain function which is frequently caused by excessive stimulation of nerves and abnormally high body temperature.
"The research is in an early stage. But this approach has the potential to develop genetics-based preventatives against brain-attacking diseases," said Kim Jae-seob, a bioscience professor of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, who led the study.
The researchers named the gene Pyrexia, which means fever. Kim"s team extracted it from genetically engineered fruit flies using a genome-screening system. In laboratory tests, they found that the gene is activated to 39 degrees Celsius or higher.
The researchers enhanced Pyrexia"s functionality in some fruit flies while removing the gene from others to observe their different reactions when exposed to high temperature.
"The fruit flies without the gene showed severe nerve disorder and suffered paralysis of brain function, while Pyrexia-enhanced flies maintained their normal brain conditions," the professor said.
The researchers got the same result from experiments with human cells, he said.
There are a lot of channel proteins, which enable ions to enter and exit the cell, that react to the level of temperature, but Pyrexia is the first of its kind that actually protects the neurons from external stimulus, he said.
The finding will appear on the March edition of the London-based science magazine Nature Genetics.
THE KOREA HERALD 2005.1.31 (thkim@heraldm.com) By Kim Tong-hyung
2005.02.02 View 15533
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Researchers Find Mechanism of Tumor Suppressor Genes
By Kim Tae-gyu. Staff ReporterTHE Korea Times 02-06-2004
Korean scientists continue to break new ground in fighting cancer as domestic researchers examined the mechanism of a gene which can help detect and treat various sorts of cancer.
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Prof. Lim Dae-sik on Thursday said his team uncovered the mechanism of RASSF1A (Ras Association Domain Family 1 A), or tumor suppressor genes, for the first time in the world.
The gene was widely considered to play an important role in reducing the proliferation of cancer cells, but its exact function and processes have remained unknown up to now.
It is the second cancer-related breakthrough by Koreans in a week after Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) Prof. Chung Hesson unveiled the oral anti-cancer drug.
``Cancer results from the failed management of cell cycles due to things like radiation. After a two-year intensive study, we found out how RASSF1A governs the cell cycle,"" Lim said.
Lim added cancer is caused by abnormal cells, which continue to grow and divide out of control unlike normal cells, which die over time. Cancer cells develop into malignant tumors, eventually inflicting damaging effect on the human body.
As a result, a lack of the RASSF1A indicates a high possibility of cancer and injection of it into cells is believed to help cure the deadly disease, according to Lim.
Dr. Song Min-sup, who took charge of the research, said the findings will especially pave the way for the detection and treatment of lung cancer.
``The dearth of RASSF1A was reported mostly in the case of lung cancer. The new findings will provide insight into the diagnosis and cure of lung cancer from its early stages,"" Song explained.
Lung cancer is a very elusive disease because it doesn"t cause symptoms in its infancy. When symptoms do occur, usually it is too late.
``We expect commercial detection kits or drugs for lung cancer in around five years after pre-clinic experimentation and two-phase clinic trials,"" Song expected.
Details of the study is available in the scientific journal Nature Cell Biology in its February edition.
voc200@koreatimes.co.kr
2004.03.15 View 17980