The Drug Target Discovery Institute (Director Kim Dong-Hoon) of Korea University recently held its successful opening symposium.
This symposium held lectures of leading global scholars in the fields of metabolic disease treatment research, and drug target discovery and development. Professor Randy J. Seeley of the University of Michigan, Professor Hiroaki Suga of the University of Tokyo, and Professor Kim Sung-Hoon of Yonsei University, shared the latest research results and future development directions such as: energy metabolism-based obesity treatment strategy, designing non-natural macrocyclic peptides, and discovery of new drugs inspired by protein translation enzymes.
Director Kim Dong-Hoon (head of the Department of Pharmacology) suggested his vision and said, "We will discover drug targets through basic medical research results via innovative multidisciplinary convergence researches, and build a global cooperation network in order to contribute to overcoming diseases."
Dean Pyun Sung-Bom of Korea University's College of Medicine expressed his great expectations for the future of the institute by saying, "I hope this symposium will become a venue for interdisciplinary communication, and develop into a crucial research institute that advances medical innovation."
The Drug Target Discovery Institute also signed an MOU with the Michigan Nutrition and Obesity Center of the University of Michigan, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is now taking a new step toward enhancing global cooperation. The institute will continue to focus on discovering new drug targets that can be applied to disease diagnosis and treatment by combining cutting-edge technologies including basic medicine, chemical biology, bioinformatics, organoids, and genome editing.