Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) Research Assistant Professor Jang Se-rim (College of Engineering, Division of Mechanical Design Engineering) has been selected for the Ministry of Science and ICT’s personal basic research program, the 2022 Sejong Science Fellowship.

The Sejong Science Fellowship is a program for non-tenure-track faculty and non-regular researchers who are under 39 years of age and within seven years post-Ph.D. It supports young scientists so they can concentrate on the research they wish to pursue and grow into, and settle as, world-class researchers in key national science and technology areas. During the research period, recipients receive research activity funding of up to KRW 100 million per year in direct costs (with up to KRW 65 million per year for the Principal Investigator (PI)’s salary) for five years.

Through this award, Dr. Jang will carry out the research project titled "Manufacturing Processes of Patterned Bionanomembrane Scaffolds for the Development of Artificial Lymphatic Vessels Under 500 µm in Diameter Operable by Voluntary Muscle Contractions, and Examination of Lymph Flow and Tissue Regeneration Effects."

Dr. Jang graduated from the Division of Biotechnology, College of Environmental & Bioresource Sciences at JBNU and received her Ph.D. from the Department of Bionanosystem Engineering (August 2021; advisor: Professor Kim Cheol-saeng). She is currently serving as a research assistant professor in the Division of Mechanical Design Engineering, College of Engineering. Over the past three years she has published ten SCI-level journal articles, including three as first author in internationally renowned journals, and has been registered as lead inventor on three core patents related to interventional medical technologies, demonstrating outstanding research achievements.

In particular, as foundational research for this project she successfully conducted a study on the "Design and Fabrication Methods for Novel Artificial Lymphatic Vessels Mimicking the Lymph Hearts and Microvalves of Lower Vertebrates," funded by the Self-Directed Research Capacity Building Program implemented by the Next-Generation Engineering Researchers Development Project Group and by the National Research Foundation’s 2020 Support for Early-Career Scholars (Ph.D. Student Research Incentive Program).

Through this research, by establishing a new manufacturing process technology for artificial conduits with a novel design for treating acquired lymphedema, it is expected that lymph transport capacity and therapeutic effects will be improved. If a scaffold capable of promoting new lymphatic vessel formation is developed and the new-concept artificial lymphatic conduit is commercialized, it is anticipated that the product could rapidly enter the market as an innovative medical device with high added value and international competitiveness.

The new manufacturing technology for artificial conduits, derived from basic research into the biological mechanisms behind the regenerative effects of patterned bionanomembrane–cell systems, is expected to enable the development of small-diameter artificial blood vessels under 3 mm in diameter—an unsolved global challenge—and to be widely applicable in tissue engineering.