First Discovery of Arteriosclerosis Treatment Effects from Insect Proteins
[November 20, 2008]
An undergraduate student in a local university issued a thesis as the primary author for an SCI level international journal.
He is Park Ki-hoon (23, photo, left, instructor Jo Gyeong-hyeon), a senior at the Yeungnam University school of Biotechnology. This is the first thesis that revealed that the proteins extracted from fall webworms (Hyphantria cunea) could be transformed using bio-engineering technologies to use for treatment of arteriosclerosis. This thesis will be in the December, 2008 issues of the prominent international academic journal, 'Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology' that is published by Elsevier company of the US. It is very rare that an undergraduate student is able to put their name on an SCI international academic journal as the primary author.
It is especially meaningful because the journal in which the thesis is being placed on is the second most influential and prominent journal in the related field.
Considering the sweat and effort that was invested in this, this result may only have been obvious. Last year around this time, he did not take any days off and had no vacation investing all of his time making tests on the functions and structures of human serum protein and fall webworm proteins. After one year of working with cells in order to evaluate the effects of arteriosclerosis cell models, he discovered the possibilities of developing treatments for arteriosclerosis and placed his name on an SCI level internationally prominent academic journal. Profess or Jo Gyeong-hyeon (40), who has been instructing him for three years showed how proud he was of this student saying, "I am only surprised of how sincere and diligent he is conducting his research, which is not seen very often among undergraduate students."
He comes to school every day at 8am and leaves the lab past 9pm. His colleagues call him 'Kant of the school of Biotechnology' and his main interest is in developing a pre-diagnosis kit and treatment for cardiovascular diseases. Cardiovascular diseases, a main cause of sudden death among Korean adults, are potentially innate in 60% of the adult population and it is the leading cause of death for any single disease. Myocardial infarction is a disease that can only be diagnosed after it has progressed for a long time and therefore, there is a high need for a kit that can predict this early and make diagnostics. Since last summer, he has begun making comparative studies on the blood of myocardial infarction patients and the blood of normal people in order to develop a myocardial infarction bio-marker.
He is a senior and in order to continue his studies, he has submitted an application at Yeungnam University graduate school of biotechnology and a MS/Ph.D course. He said, "I first selected my major as biotechnology because I became interested in it after watching the movie Jurassic Park, but it was difficult because movies and reality was very different. However, after I started doing tests full time, I became confident that this was the path I wanted to take." He also added, "Now, even when I spend my entire day on researching, I don't feel tired or that I am wasting my time. This is because I am convinced that my research may grant patients and their families hope and power."
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