Seung-woo Jeong, a PhD candidate in the School of Semiconductor and Chemical Engineering at Jeonbuk National University (JBNU), under the supervision of Ji-ho Min, has been selected for a new project under the National Research Foundation of Korea’s 2026 PhD Candidate Research Incentive Support Program and will begin developing a brain-targeted drug delivery platform.

The selected project is titled "Phage-Display-Based Blood–Brain Barrier (BBB)-Penetrating Peptide Screening and Development of a Brain-Specific Dual-Mechanism Delivery Nanosystem Based on Yeast Vacuole-Mimicking Liposomes." The research will be conducted from September 2026 for two years.

The PhD Candidate Research Incentive Support Program supports domestic doctoral students in leading creative and challenging research projects that are linked to their doctoral dissertations.

The selected project will receive research funding of up to KRW 25 million per year. Seung-woo Jeong will conduct the research over two years to develop brain-targeted drug delivery technology.

This research focuses on discovering peptides capable of effectively traversing the blood–brain barrier (BBB), a major challenge in drug delivery, and on conjugating these peptides with liposomes that mimic the lipid composition of yeast vacuole membranes. The goal is to develop a new brain-targeted drug delivery platform for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

Seung-woo Jeong said, "I will use this project selection as an opportunity to establish an original brain-targeted drug delivery technology and to produce research outcomes that can make a practical contribution to the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases."