GIST Professor Jeon Jang-su and Seoul Asan Medical Center Professor Kang Yoon-gu Awarded Asan Medical Prize

Jeon Jang-su, Professor, Department of Life Sciences, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology; Kang Yoon-gu, Professor, Department of Oncology, Asan Medical Center, Seoul; Jung Choong-won, Professor, Department of Life Sciences, Seoul National University; Park Se-hoon, Internal Medicine Specialist, Seoul National University College of Medicine (from left).

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-joo] The Asan Foundation announced on the 25th that the recipients of the 16th Asan Medical Award are Professor Jeon Jang-su of the Department of Life Sciences at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) for the Basic Medical Science category, and Professor Kang Yoon-gu of the Department of Oncology at Seoul Asan Medical Center for the Clinical Medical Science category. For the Young Medical Scientist category, Professor Jung Choong-won of the Department of Life Sciences at Seoul National University College of Natural Sciences and Dr. Park Se-hoon, a specialist in internal medicine at Seoul National University College of Medicine, were selected.

Professor Jeon, selected for the Basic Medical Science category, was recognized for his global leadership in the field of basic research on degenerative arthritis through his 23 years of research elucidating the molecular biological causes of degenerative arthritis. He studied cellular signal transduction systems at the University of Massachusetts and Harvard Medical School in the United States, and joined GIST as a professor in the Department of Life Sciences in 2000, where he has been researching cartilage degeneration and degenerative arthritis to this day.

Notably, in 2014, he published in Cell that zinc ions activate proteins that induce cartilage degeneration within cells, and in 2019, he was the first in the world to reveal the correlation between cholesterol and degenerative arthritis through Nature. Last year, he announced research results on a new compound that can suppress the onset and progression of degenerative arthritis.

Professor Kang, the recipient in the Clinical Medical Science category, was highly evaluated for his world-class achievements in the field of chemotherapy for gastric cancer and gastrointestinal stromal tumors through various domestic and international clinical studies. He led large-scale clinical studies on immunotherapy including immune checkpoint inhibitors for metastatic gastric cancer and neoadjuvant chemotherapy for locally advanced gastric cancer, publishing the results in journals such as The Lancet, improving existing standard treatments for gastric cancer and enhancing treatment outcomes. In particular, he advanced targeted therapy methods for gastrointestinal stromal tumors, one of the rare cancers, and was the first to demonstrate that re-administration of targeted therapy after failure delays tumor progression, establishing this as a global standard treatment.

Two recipients were selected for the Young Medical Scientist category, awarded to medical scientists under the age of 40. Professor Jung was recognized as a population geneticist for providing fundamental genetic information necessary for the development of personalized medicine by identifying characteristics of various ethnic groups. Dr. Park revealed through large-scale genomic data analysis and clinical-epidemiological studies that atrial fibrillation affects chronic kidney disease, and elucidated the correlation between decreased kidney function and reduced lung function.

The Asan Medical Award ceremony will be held on March 21 at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul. Winners in the Basic Medical Science and Clinical Medical Science categories will receive 300 million KRW, and winners in the Young Medical Scientist category will receive 50 million KRW.

The Asan Foundation established the Asan Medical Award in 2008 to encourage medical scientists who have achieved outstanding accomplishments in the fields of basic and clinical medical sciences. Recipients are selected through a comprehensive evaluation of research consistency and originality, domestic and international influence, and contributions to the advancement of medical science, following review by the judging and operating committees.

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