Professor Woo‑Hyun Kim of the Medical School has been selected for the Leader Researcher Support Project, organized by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation of Korea.

The Leader Researcher Support Project selects the most creative research and researchers to lead the national science and technology sector and to promote top-level research for the Republic of Korea. Professor Kim was honored with selection for his research on the calcium (Ca2+) signaling system, the most fundamental signaling mechanism that maintains cellular function.

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

Professor Kim's team (NAD/Ca2+ Signaling Laboratory) has elucidated the Ca2+ signaling system in a variety of cell types—including pancreatic beta cells, immune cells, cardiac cells, and renal cells—over the past 20 years.

In particular, through efforts to create a roadmap database of calcium regulatory mechanisms—an endeavor not previously attempted—his team has more deeply elucidated the tissue-specific expression patterns and regulatory mechanisms of enzymes that regulate Ca2+ signaling (ADPRC/NADase).

Through this research, Professor Kim is expected to provide foundational technologies for the development of therapeutics for human diseases arising from abnormal Ca2+ signaling—such as diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, liver fibrosis, and male infertility—and to position his research group as an international leader in the field.

Meanwhile, Professor Woo‑Hyun Kim was selected for the Korea Research Foundation's Priority Research Center Support Program (2000–2006), the Korea Science Foundation's Leading Scientist Development Program (2003–2005), and the Specific Basic Research Program (2005–2008), conducting active research on the Ca2+ signaling system for over 20 years. In 2007 he was designated as a national research laboratory.

Last year, he achieved the world's first functional analysis of a protein that decisively affects sperm motility, providing a clue toward resolving infertility. Through these sustained research achievements, he received last year the country's most prestigious medical award, the Pfizer Medical Award, and in 2009 he was awarded the Dongheon Biochemistry Award.