Professor Yong-Chul Lee (51) of the Medical School, Department of Respiratory and Allergy Medicine, has been appointed a full member of the National Academy of Medicine of Korea, the nation’s most prestigious academic body in the field of medicine.

  At the 9th regular general meeting of the National Academy of Medicine of Korea held on January 26, he was appointed a full member and received a certificate in recognition of his research on the development of novel respiratory therapeutics, a field that has been underserved domestically.

  The National Academy of Medicine of Korea was founded in 2004 to contribute to the advancement of medicine and the promotion of public health. It currently comprises 293 leading scholars in the medical field.

  Professor Lee currently serves as director of the Ministry of Health and Welfare-designated Specialized Center for the Development of Lung Injury Treatments, where he conducts active research on intractable pulmonary diseases. From 2005 to 2010, he served as Principal Investigator (PI) for the Ministry of Education’s government-designated research project, the 'Airway Remodeling Control Technology Laboratory,' successfully completing the research project.

  To date, he has published 261 research papers, including 124 articles in SCI-indexed international journals, and has authored seven scholarly books related to respiratory medicine.

  Notably, his 2009 book Nitric Oxide: Biology and Pathobiology (Academic Press) was edited by Nobel Laureate Louis J. Ignarro, a professor at UCLA School of Medicine, and received considerable attention.

  In addition, his 2003 paper “Involvement of PTEN in airway hyperresponsiveness and inflammation in bronchial asthma” (Journal of Clinical Investigation 111(7):1083-1092) was the first in the world to demonstrate that the tumor suppressor gene PTEN is involved in bronchial asthma. The study showed that PI3K inhibitors, which play a critical role in suppressing cancer cell growth, can improve asthma symptoms.

  This research continues to be widely cited by researchers worldwide, and recently several domestic and international pharmaceutical research institutes have been developing and studying PI3K-blocking therapies as targets for asthma treatment.

  Meanwhile, serving as Chair of Internal Medicine at the Medical School, Professor Lee has held positions such as Research Director of the Korean Academy of Asthma and Allergy and Chair of the Organizing Committee for the Asia-Pacific Respiratory Conference. He currently serves as a director of the Medical Terminology Committee of the Korean Tuberculosis and Respiratory Society and as an associate editor of the society’s academic journal.

  He received the nation’s most prestigious Pfizer Medical Award in 2009, and has also been honored with the Outstanding Science and Technology Paper Award, the BK Excellent Researcher Award, the Allergopharma Award, and the Health Industry Technology Award. His work has been recognized as an Outstanding Achievement by the Academic Promotion Foundation and listed among the Top 100 Excellent Outcomes of National Development Projects.

  Professor Lee said, “Selection as a full member of the National Academy of Medicine of Korea is recognition of my various activities to date,” and added, “I will strive to bring hope to patients with intractable lung injury diseases through the development of novel respiratory drugs in a field that has been underdeveloped in medicine.”