Plenary

Kwang-Soo Kim Ph.D. is a Professor at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at McLean Hospital, and also the Masson Family Endowed Scholar at Massachusetts General Hospital. He has over 30 years of experience investigating the molecular neurobiology of midbrain dopamine neuronal systems in health and disease, focusing on elucidating the genetic network of intrinsic signaling molecules and the extrinsic transcription factors underlying the development and maintenance of dopamine neurons. These investigations led to the identification of the orphan nuclear receptor Nurr1 as a promising molecular target to treat Parkinson’s disease (PD). To further the development of novel mechanism-based disease-modifying drugs, based on recent findings, Dr. Kim established NurrON pharma (https://nurronpharma.com/) for clinical applications. In addition, Dr. Kim focuses on furthering our understanding of somatic cell reprogramming and differentiation, allowing him to establish a platform of key technologies propelling the development of personalized cell therapy for PD using patients’ own cells. Based on these progresses, he obtained FDA approval, leading to successful treatment of the first PD patient in 2017 (Schweitzer et al., 2020, NEJM), which has recently been selected as one of 25 major discoveries in stem cell research by the International Society of Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) in 2022 (Lendahl, 100 plus years of stem cell research-20 years of ISSCR, Stem Cell Reports, 2022, 17:1248).

Jae Ung Jung was a faculty at Harvard Medical School (1992-2007) and served as Tumor Virology Division Chair. He was the first Korean-born faculty to be promoted to a tenured professorship at Harvard University. Jung was Fletcher Jones Foundation Chair, Distinguished Professor, Chair of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Department, and Director of the USC Institute of Emerging Pathogens and Immune Diseases at University of Southern California Medical School (2008-2020). Since 2020, Jung is currently a Betsy B. deWindt Chair, Chair of Cancer Biology Department, Director of Infection Biology Program, and Director of Global Center for Pathogen and Human Health Research at Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic. Jung was awarded South Korea’s 2012 Ho-Am Prize in Medicine, the Scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America and the National Institute of Cancer Outstanding Investigator Award. He is Fellow of American Academy of Microbiology and Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science. Jung is regarded as a preeminent expert in the field of emerging virus, virus-induced cancer, anti-viral immunity, and vaccine.

Young-Kee Kim is the Louis Block Distinguished Service Professor of Physics and Senior Advisor to the Provost for Global Scientific Initiatives at the University of Chicago. Young-Kee is an experimental particle physicist, devoting to understanding the origin of mass for fundamental particles using particle accelerators. She was Deputy Director of Fermilab between 2006 and 2013, Chair of the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago between 2016 and 2022. She is President of the KSEA and is elected to be President of the American Physical Society in 2024. Prior to Chicago, Young-Kee was Professor of Physics at University of California, Berkeley. She earned BS (1984) and MS (1986) from Korea University, and Ph.D. (1990) from University of Rochester, and conducted postdoctoral research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Young-Kee is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an overseas member of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology, and a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Sloan Foundation. She received the Ho-Am Prize and the Women in Science Leadership Award from the Chicago Council of Science and Technology.