Faculty members at our university who receive major attention from the global academic community each year for outstanding research achievements have recently been selected for national programs that name the country’s top researchers or have had successive publications in leading international journals, creating a strong response in academia.

▲ Professor Kim Woo-hyun Selected as a Leading Researcher to Guide Korea

Professor Kim Woo-hyun of the Medical School was selected for the Leader Researcher Support Program (Creative Research Project) organized by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation of Korea.

The Leader Researcher Support Program (Creative Research Project) selects and supports the most creative research expected to lead the nation’s science and technology. Professor Kim was honored with selection for his research on the calcium (Ca2+) signaling system, the most fundamental signaling mechanism by which cells maintain their functions.

Accordingly, Professor Kim will receive research funding of up to 800 million won per year, totaling approximately 7 billion won over nine years from the ministry, and will conduct world-class research on the calcium signaling system.

Over more than 20 years, Professor Kim has elucidated the Ca2+ signaling system in diverse cells, including pancreatic beta cells, immune cells, cardiac cells and renal cells. His work is expected to provide foundational technology for developing therapeutics for human diseases that result from abnormal Ca2+ signaling, such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, liver fibrosis and male infertility, positioning his group as an international leader in the field.

Meanwhile, Professor Kim has been supported by programs such as the Korea Research Foundation’s Center of Excellence support project (2000–2006), the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation’s Leading Scientist Development Program (2003–2005), and the Targeted Basic Research Program (2005–2008), carrying out vigorous research on Ca2+ signaling for more than 20 years. In 2007 he was also designated for a government-designated research laboratory.

Last year he achieved a world-first analysis of a protein that critically influences male sperm motility, providing a clue to solving infertility. Through sustained research achievements, he received the country’s most prestigious medical award, the Pfizer Medical Award, last year, and the Dongheon Biochemistry Award in 2009.

▲ Professor Lee Joong-hee’s Team Develops Highly Conductive Composite Materials

A breakthrough study on the development of polymer composite materials that could realize dream technologies such as electronic paper with bendable displays like sheets of paper and wearable computers like clothing has drawn academic interest. The research was reported by Professor Lee Joong-hee’s team in the Department of BIN Convergence Engineering.

Professor Lee’s team, together with Dr. Koo Bon-cheol’s research team at the Jeonbuk branch of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), reported results on the development of a "graphene-based highly conductive composite material" in the April issue of the world-leading nanotechnology journal Nano Letters (impact factor 12.1).

Graphene is an ultra-thin, transparent carbon nanomaterial obtained by peeling single layers from the surface of the natural mineral graphite. It is more than 100 times stronger than steel and exhibits thermal and electrical conductivities that are respectively more than twice and more than 1,000 times faster than diamond and copper, earning it the label of a "dream new material" and attracting attention across industries.

However, manufacturing polymer composites requires large quantities of graphene, and when mixed with plastics (polymeric materials) graphene tends to agglomerate in resins and organic solvents. Despite its excellent properties, this agglomeration has limited industrial applications.

Therefore, producing highly conductive polymer composites required a method to simultaneously improve dispersion and electrical conductivity. The research team found a breakthrough method to solve these challenges.

The manufacturing process discovered by the team can simultaneously enhance the electrical conductivity and mechanical strength of high-performance engineering plastics, making it widely applicable to coating layers for display materials and aerospace composite industries. This new technology has already been registered as a domestic patent, and an international patent application has been filed.

▲ Professor Lee Sang-kwon’s Team Develops Cell Separation Chip to Diagnose Cancer Metastasis

The day may soon come when dropping a small volume of blood onto a kit will allow easy and rapid diagnosis of metastatic cancer. Professor Lee Sang-kwon of the Department of Semiconductor Science and Technology and his research team — composed of graduate students Kim Dong‑ju (Ph.D. candidate), Seol Jin‑kyung (M.S. candidate), Dr. Kim Gil‑sung, Hyeong Jeong‑hwan (Ph.D. candidate), and Dr. Lee Seung‑yong — have achieved important results toward developing a diagnostic chip that is low-cost and can determine cancer metastasis from very small blood samples.

The team developed a cell separation chip that can isolate immune cells with high efficiency using a transparent quartz nanopillar structure.

This research was published in the April online edition of the world-leading nanoscience journal Nanoscale (impact factor 4.1). Recognized for its excellence, the work was selected as a cover article for the print issue.

The developed quartz nanopillar cell separation chip selectively isolates immunologically and disease‑relevant CD4 T cells from immune cells extracted from a mouse spleen. The team achieved a cell separation rate more than 95% higher than their 2010 results, a level of progress equivalent to four times better performance than when using conventional glass substrates.

In this study, the researchers used quartz nanopillar structures, which are more transparent and enable finer fabrication than silicon nanowires. Notably, they fabricated precise micro-patterns on the immune cell separation chip using semiconductor processes and added a cell counting function (hemocytometer) that simultaneously measures immune cell numbers — a significant advancement.

The team is also pursuing development of a "metastasis diagnostic chip" that, using these results, can early-separate circulating tumor cells and circulating stem cells present in very low quantities in patient blood (1–10 cells/mL), enabling diagnosis of metastatic cancer from blood within one hour. This line of research is expected to achieve a major breakthrough toward inexpensive, easy diagnosis of cancer metastasis using only small blood samples.

▲ Professor Eun Jong-pil’s Team Proposes Effective Diagnostic Method for Far‑Lateral Lumbar Disc Herniation

Professor Eun Jong‑pil’s team proposed an effective diagnostic method for the diagnostically challenging condition known as far‑lateral lumbar disc herniation. Their study was published in the April issue of the leading spine surgery journal Journal of Spinal Disorder and Technique.

Until now, definitive diagnosis of far‑lateral lumbar disc herniation required invasive discography with injection of contrast agent into the disc followed by CT imaging (discography‑CT). This study presents a new diagnostic concept that can make a definitive diagnosis using high-resolution 3‑T MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) without such complex testing.

For this study, Eun’s team obtained special spinal contrast images without contrast injection using 3‑T MRI in 30 patients whose clinical symptoms and conventional MRI suggested far‑lateral lumbar disc herniation. They proceeded to surgery after diagnosing the far‑lateral herniation, and surgical findings matched the preoperative diagnosis in all cases. All patients showed satisfactory postoperative improvement.

The research team reported that the new diagnostic method can obtain clearer images of soft tissues such as neural tissue and discs, and can help predict symptom severity based on the extent of nerve root invasion by the extruded disc.

▲ Professors Lee Hoe-seon and Kim Dae-gi’s Team Develop Functional Food for Diabetes Treatment

Professor Lee Hoe‑seon (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Department of Bioenvironmental Chemistry) and Professor Kim Dae‑gi (Medical School) jointly developed a functional food made from a component extracted from wheat sprout that lowers blood glucose and can treat diabetes.

The research team received 300 million won in government funding to carry out the project "Industrialization Research of Biofunctional Materials for Diabetes Improvement Using Wheat Sprout Extract," and successfully developed a prototype functional food for diabetes improvement.

The team has been conducting this research since 2008 as part of a high value‑added food technology development program, continuing the work through last year.

The researchers explained that wheat sprout extract not only has antioxidant effects that help prevent aging, but also lowers blood glucose concentration and increases insulin levels, demonstrating strong efficacy for diabetes treatment.

The team stated, "Comparative experiments with currently marketed diabetes medications have proven the superiority of this biofunctional food," and added, "We plan to transfer the technology to a private company in the second half of this year for full-scale development as a diabetes therapeutic."