Lee, Ji-hye, 1st year in master's course and Park, Jeong-heun, senior
Professor Cho, Kyung-hyun's research lab, continuing tradition of SCI thesis publication by undergraduates
[June 7, 2010]
Two female students in The Yeungnam University School of Biotechnology Professor Cho, Kyung-hyun's research lab placed as the joint first author in an SCI journal.
This time they are Lee, Ji-hye (23), who is in her first year in her master's degree course and Park, Jeong-heun (22), who is a senior in her undergraduate course. They found an important clue in preventing arteriosclerosis and published their clinical research thesis in the June issue of 《the International Journal of Molecular Medicine》.
[Lee, Ji-hye (left) and Park, Jeong-heun (right) are speaking with Professor Cho, Kyung-hyun (center) while looking at their thesis that published in the SCI journal]
After analyzing a 64 year old Korean woman who had hyperlipidemia, but had low density lipoprotein (LDL), and thus did not show signs of arteriosclerosis, they discovered that it is essential to lower the value of LDL from cholesterol. This suggested a new direction on existing research that focused on lowering the overall value of cholesterol, and it was recognized for its value in the international society through the publication of the thesis.
Park, Jeong-heun commented, "I was able to place my name on the SCI journal as an undergraduate student because of Ji-hye." Meanwhile, Lee, Ji-hye praised Park, Jeong-heun stating, "It was possible to complete tests that would have been difficult to do alone because of Jeong-heun's help and so we were able to attain good results." She added, "She never complained of the frequent all-nighters last semester and I really thank her for being such a great research partner."
Lee, Ji-hye is planning to present the research results by participating in the 78th European Arteriosclerosis Conference to be held in Hamburg, Germany in the middle of this month. Park, Jeong-heun, who will begin her master's degree course next semester will also participate in the HDL Research Conference to be held in Reus, Spain in September and is planning to present the research results of the aging-suppression tests that she is currently working on.
Thus, Professor Cho, Kyung-hyun's research lab has continued its tradition of 'undergraduate student SCI thesis publication'. This first started in December 2008. At the time, Park, Gi-hoon (25, the 3rd master's and doctorate's combined program), who was at the time a senior, became the first to discover that proteins extracted from Hyphantria cunea could be transformed using bio-engineering technologies to treat atherosclerosis, and published his paper in the Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, which was the second most authoritative international journal in the related sector. Furthermore, it was an issue because the main author of the paper was an undergraduate student.
Also in the past January, Jang, Wook-joo (21), a junior, became the first in the world to clarify the aging-promotion mechanism of fructose and was listed as the first author in the SCI listed journal called Biochemical Biophysical Research Communication. Moreover, the research results were used to apply for a patent on the development of a treatment for suppressing metabolic syndromes such as aging-suppression and diabetes/arteriosclerosis, which is a rare achievement for an undergraduate student. This was achieved through the 'undergraduate research program (URP)' support of the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science & Creativity, and after completing the project, Choi was also selected as the best S-level student in the analysis. This resulted in receiving the presidential award bestowed to 'Y-type Talents' at the Yeungnam University 63rd Anniversary.
Such achievements are the results of passing down the passion for academic exploration by seniors to juniors. Jang, Wook-joo and Park Jeong-heun could be recognized internationally for their research achievements despite the fact that they were undergraduates because Park, Gi-hoo and Lee, Ji-hye become their the role models.
Professor Cho, Kyung-hyun (42), who is in charge of the lab, stated, "Thanks to the diligence of Gi-hoon, who was nicknamed 'Kant of the School of Biotechnology' and came to school everyday at 8 am and stayed until past 9 pm, the entire lab is filled with the passion to study." He added, "I hope that senior and junior students will continue to collaborate to achieve great results and continue the tradition of our lab that continues to accumulate such achievements."
Meanwhile, Professor Cho, Kyung-hyun, was recently introduced in the Researchers Page of the National Research Foundation of Korea for the accumulated research results on aging and arteriosclerosis.
