14th Asan Medical Award Honors Ronald Evans and Professor Gu Bon-gwon

14th Asan Medical Award Grand Prize Winners Professor Ronald Evans - Professor Koo Bon-kwon (from left) (Provided by Asan Foundation for Social Welfare)

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] The Asan Social Welfare Foundation announced on the 25th the selection of the recipients of the 14th Asan Medical Award.

Ronald Evans (72), a professor at the Salk Institute in the United States, was selected for the basic medical science category, and Bon-Kwon Koo (54), a professor of internal medicine at Seoul National University College of Medicine, was selected for the clinical medical science category. For the young medical scientist category, which selects medical scientists under the age of 40, Jin-Hong Kim (39), a professor in the Department of Life Sciences at Seoul National University, and Chang-Hoon Yoo (39), a professor of internal medicine at Ulsan University College of Medicine, were selected.

The award ceremony for the 14th Asan Medical Award is scheduled to be held on March 18. Professor Ronald Evans, the recipient in the basic medical science category, will receive $250,000; Professor Bon-Kwon Koo, the recipient in the clinical medical science category, will receive 300 million KRW; and Professors Jin-Hong Kim and Chang-Hoon Yoo, recipients in the young medical scientist category, will each receive 50 million KRW, totaling over 700 million KRW awarded to the four recipients.

Professor Ronald Evans of the Salk Institute was recognized for elucidating the impact of ‘nuclear receptors,’ proteins that bind steroid hormones inside cells to regulate gene expression, on the development and treatment of metabolic diseases and cancer, earning him the award in the basic medical science category.

Starting in 1985 with the glucocorticoid nuclear receptor, he discovered various steroid hormone nuclear receptors and also identified many ‘orphan nuclear receptors’ whose endogenous ligands in the human body had not yet been identified. He collectively named these the ‘nuclear receptor superfamily.’ Furthermore, by discovering the principles by which nuclear receptors respond to various hormones and regulate gene expression, he has led research on the mechanisms of hormone signal transduction mediated by these receptors.

Professor Evans played a decisive role in identifying all 48 members of the human nuclear receptor superfamily. Through this, he elucidated the regulatory mechanisms of glucose, sodium, calcium, and lipid metabolism by hormones and contributed to the development of related disease treatments. The nuclear receptor superfamily he discovered is currently utilized in developing treatments for various diseases such as diabetes, obesity, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, leukemia, breast cancer, prostate cancer, osteoporosis, and immune disorders.

Beyond research, Professor Evans has contributed to the advancement of Korean research by training many Korean medical scientists. Several medical scientists, including Jaemyung Seo of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Seongsun Hwang of Yonsei University, have passed through Professor Evans’ laboratory and are actively conducting research for the development of basic medical science and new drug development. Currently, three Korean PhD students continue the legacy of Korean scholars in Professor Evans’ laboratory.

Professor Bon-Kwon Koo of Seoul National University, the recipient in the clinical medical science category, was recognized for leading research on coronary artery disease by integrating imaging and physiological tests, significantly contributing to elevating the diagnosis and treatment of adult heart disease in Korea to a world-class level.

In 2011, Professor Koo developed and validated the world’s first new cardiac blood flow test that evaluates the degree of coronary artery stenosis and vascular function using computer simulation technology. This test has improved the predictive power for acute coronary syndrome, which accounts for about 20% of global mortality causes.

Among the young medical scientist awardees, Professor Jin-Hong Kim of Seoul National University was recognized for elucidating the mechanisms of degenerative joint disease and developing a treatment method that inhibits the progression of osteoarthritis and regenerates cartilage by regulating specific microRNAs that promote chondrocyte aging within cells.

Professor Chang-Hoon Yoo of Ulsan University, also selected for the young medical scientist category, was recognized for his contributions to new drug research and clinical application for liver, biliary tract, pancreatic cancers, and neuroendocrine tumors. Through clinical and translational research using immuno-oncology drugs and targeted therapies, he has contributed to improving treatment outcomes for these notoriously difficult-to-treat cancers.

The Asan Social Welfare Foundation established the Asan Medical Award in 2007 to encourage medical scientists who have achieved outstanding accomplishments in basic and clinical medical science fields. This year marks the second time a foreign medical scientist who contributed to the development of Korean medicine has been awarded, following Roberto Romero, a professor at the National Institutes of Health’s Perinatology Research Branch, who received the clinical medical science award in 2016.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.