Hanmi Pharm Imsunggi Foundation Holds 1st 'Imsunggi Researcher Award' Ceremony

Recipient: Dr. Kim Insan, KIST Bio-Medical Convergence Research Center
Young Researcher Award: Professors Lee Hyukjin and Joo Youngseok

The 1st Im Seong-gi Researcher Award ceremony was held on the 2nd at Lotte Signiel Seoul in Songpa-gu, Seoul. Professor Lee Hyuk-jin, recipient of the Young Researcher Award, Dr. Kim In-san, Grand Prize winner, Chairman Lee Kwan-soon of the Im Seong-gi Foundation, and Professor Joo Young-seok, recipient of the Young Researcher Award, are posing for a commemorative photo (from left in the photo).

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] The first recipient of the ‘Im Seong-gi Researcher Award,’ established to honor the late Im Seong-gi, founder of Hanmi Pharmaceutical Group, and his dedication, legacy, and philosophy toward new drug development, has been decided.

Hanmi Pharmaceutical announced on the 3rd that the 1st Im Seong-gi Researcher Award ceremony was held on the 2nd at Lotte Signiel Seoul in Songpa-gu, Seoul. The ceremony was conducted strictly following COVID-19 prevention guidelines with only the minimum number of attendees, including the awardees and staff.

The Im Seong-gi Researcher Award is the most prestigious domestic researcher award targeting Korean researchers who have achieved highly regarded and highly applicable results in the fields of biotechnology and pharmaceutical science. It is a core project prioritized by the Im Seong-gi Foundation to improve the challenging domestic research environment and accelerate the realization of a pharmaceutical powerhouse through R&D. The foundation formed a judging committee composed of scholars in medicine, pharmacy, and biotechnology, which conducted a rigorous evaluation over three sessions spanning three months to select the awardees.

The honor of the 1st Grand Prize went to Dr. Kim In-san, head of the Bio-Medical Convergence Research Division at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). The ‘Young Researcher Award’ recipients were Professor Lee Hyuk-jin of Ewha Womans University College of Pharmacy and Professor Joo Young-seok of the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). The grand prize winner received a plaque and a prize of 300 million KRW, while the young researcher awardees each received a plaque and 50 million KRW.

Dr. Kim, a physician and scientist specializing in life sciences, was recognized for successfully establishing a new anticancer immune system platform that induces the human body to mount an immune response against cancer cells and leads to their death. The Im Seong-gi Researcher Award judging committee evaluated that “this technology could be widely applied in the development of new concept anticancer drugs.”

Professor Lee, who received the Young Researcher Award, developed foundational lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology that enhances messenger RNA (mRNA) delivery, which is expected to significantly contribute not only to vaccine development but also to treatments for intractable diseases such as cancer. Professor Joo is anticipated to play a major role in preventing new pandemics by elucidating the process by which the COVID-19 virus damages the lungs through 3D alveolar cell culture technology.

Lee Gwan-soon, chairman of the Im Seong-gi Foundation, said, “The three awardees have been honored for their high-level scientific achievements as well as research results with high applicability in the field of new drug development, which this award aims to promote. I hope today’s event will help strengthen the foundation of biotechnology and pharmaceutical science and encourage domestic researchers who are opening new paths despite difficult circumstances.”

Meanwhile, at the ceremony, the biography of Chairman Im Seong-gi, titled ‘The Great Face of the Korean Pharmaceutical Industry, Im Seong-gi and Hanmi Pharmaceutical,’ was unveiled and distributed to attendees for the first time. The biography contains the life trajectory, evaluations, and significance of Chairman Im, who lived a life of creativity, innovation, and challenge, as well as recorded voice messages he left for employees since the 1980s.

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