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A team led by Ajou University Professor Sang Min Jeon (College of Pharmacy, pictured above) found that clobetasol propionate, an ointment substance used to treat skin problems, is very effective at containing NRF2 (Nuclear factor E2-Related Factor 2), a gene that causes lung cancer. The team’s findings were published on May 15th in the online edition of Oncogene, which is a sister journal of Nature and internationally recognized as an authority specializing in oncology (IF 7.93), under the title of "A Clinical Drug Library Screen Identifies Clobetasol Propionate as an NRF2 Inhibitor with Potential Therapeutic Efficacy in KEAP1 Mutant Lung Cancer."There have been worldwide efforts to develop anti-cancer agents targeting NRF2, which also creates tolerance to existing anti-cancer drugs and radiation therapy. However, no anti-cancer agent that can control NRF2 has been discovered.In the latest research, Professor Jeon's team adopted the drug repositioning strategy that uses the catalogue of about 4,000 compounds for clinical purposes to streamline the drug-development process. In the process, he confirmed that steroid series agents are generally effective in controlling NRF2 and clobetasol propionate is the most powerful among them.Clobetasol propionate’s mechanism blocks the decomposition of NRF2 protein, which is dependent on GSK3-βTrCP, and its movement into the nucleus by combining with the glucocorticoid receptor, a kind of nuclear receptor.Professor Jeon said, "Our findings are a first in that we identified the strongest agent in containing NRF2 from among those now being used in clinical tests, and the agent’s strong anti-cancer effect has been proved in animal testing," adding, "I expect that clinical tests for developing anti-cancer drugs using clobetasol propionate will be possible before long, since a wealth of clinical data on its side effects and reliability has been collected while being used as a skin ailment drug."The research was conducted with the support of the Research and Development Project to Conquer Cancer carried out by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Basic Research Support Project (for individuals) carried out by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. Eun Ji Choi (co-first author, master's and doctoral combined course at Ajou University), Byeong Jin Jung (co-first author, master's course at Ajou University), Hwan Shik Yoo (coauthor, master's course at Ajou University), Eun Ae Shin (coauthor, master's course at Ajou University), and researchers from other universities participated in the research.
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- 작성일2017-07-07
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Ajou University Professor Soon Tae Kim (Department of Environmental and Safety Engineering) received a presidential citation for his contribution to environmental protection at a ceremony held on June 5th at KINTEX, Goyang City, to mark the 22nd Environment Day. The event was organized by the Ministry of Environment.He was acknowledged for investigating the causes of air pollution through analyses of the movement of pollutants in Northeast Asia, contributing to developing policies for improving air quality in Korea (e.g., ceasing the operation of outdated thermal power plants), and establishing a forecast system that allows people to prepare for fine dust.Professor Kim said, "While air pollution calls for urgent action due to its direct effects on the citizens' health, it is hard to address in the short term," adding, "Fostering talents in the relevant areas is an important step to tackle the challenge."Held under the theme "Korea Where Life and Environmental Values Are in Harmony," the ceremony was attended by about 1,000 people, including Prime Minister Nak Yon Lee, Minister of Environment Kyeung Kyu Cho, and those from environmental organizations and businesses. It featured performances and other cultural activities on environmental protection in addition to the awards presentation.
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On the afternoon of June 1st, a farewell ceremony for President Dong Yeon Kim was held on the lawn in front of Ajou University's Seongho Hall with students, faculty and staff members, and alumni in attendance.The ceremony, in which Professor Chul Hwan Joo (Department of Culture and Contents) served as the MC, began with presenting farewell messages from Ajou people.Many students, including those who participated in the After You Program, presented letters and gifts to President Kim. Then, faculty members, including Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs Hee Sug Ryu, alumni, and people from the local community left messages for him.Executive Vice President for Industry-Academia Cooperation Kyung Hee Choi presented a commemorative plaque and a gift and President Beom Jae Lee of the General Alumni Association gave another plaque to appoint President Kim as an honorary alumnus of Ajou University. A photo session with Ajou people followed the main event.President Kim said, "I was truly happy during the past two years and four months at the University," adding, "I want to especially thank our students because the times I spent with them were particularly enjoyable."He went on to say, "I am sorry that I am leaving the University in the middle of my term," adding, "But I am relieved since I trust in the abilities and potential of Ajou people."He then stated, "I would like to remain one of the Ajou people in my heart wherever I may be," adding, " I will try my best to support the development of the University."He took office as the 15th President of Ajou University in 2015 and leaves the post after being appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Strategy and Finance.
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Members of the Ajou University community, or Ajou people, participated in the Suwon Citizens Forest Project held in Mongolia and planted about 10,000 trees. The Project, which began in 2011 under the initiative of the Suwon Municipal Government, aims to stop desertification and reduce yellow dust in Mongolia.The event, which was held from May 25th to the 29th in Erdene Soum, was attended by 40 officials from Suwon City, including Deputy Mayor Tae Ho Do, and 52 Ajou people, including Dean Heung Sik Kim of the Graduate School of Public Affairs, Dean Byoung Kwan Kim of the College of Social Sciences, Vice President for Student Affairs Jai Hyoung Cho, Executive Director Yeong Hyeon Lee from the Daewoo Educational Foundation, students from the Graduate School of Public Affairs, and members of the community service club.Suwon City plans to create a forest over the next decade by planting 100,000 trees – 10,000 per year – and build an irrigation system for the effective management of the forest.In addition, Ajou people donated books and stationery and discussed bilateral exchanges and cooperation during their visit to Ulaanbaatar University. They also visited the Korean Embassy in Mongolia at the invitation of Ambassador Song Oh.
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A team led by Ajou University Professor Yong Sung Kim (Department of Applied Chemical & Biological Engineering, Graduate School's Department of Molecular Science and Technology, pictured above) developed an antibody that can control a cancer-causing protein within a cell. The breakthrough finding is expected to contribute to developing new antibody-based medicines for cancer treatment.The findings of Professor Kim were published on May 10th in the online edition of Nature Communications, an international academic journal.Professor Kim succeeded in developing the antibody-related technology that directly targets Ras, one of the most well-known mutant proteins that cause tumors within cells, and keeps tumors from growing.Ras is found in about 30 percent of human tumors and is closely related to pancreatic cancer (95 percent) and colorectal cancer (52 percent), which makes the development of medicines for curing these cancers urgent. However, no such medicine targeting Ras has been developed despite the hard work of numerous researchers.The accomplishment of Professor Kim is even more significant in that it has opened the doors to developing new antibody-based medicines for the previously indestructible Ras mutant.Professor Kim explained, "Existing antibodies targeted only the surface of cells (membrane protein and secretory protein)," adding, "The technology developed by my team blocks the growth signal sent by the Ras mutant by directly penetrating protoplasm."With the findings, he has acquired two domestic patents and filed for international patents in 14 countries including the U.S. The research is supported by the Pioneer Projects for Promising Convergence Technologies for the Future carried out by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning.Last year, Professor Kim established Orum Therapeutics (CEO Seung Ju Lee) to commercialize the original technology for the cell-penetrating interfering antibody. The latest technology developed by his team is expected to make a remarkable difference in the domestic and overseas antibody medicine markets once the relevant products are released after clinical tests.< Mechanism of targeting Ras protein – An antibody penetrates a cell by combining with an integrin receptor that is overly expressed on the surface of the oncocyte. It then attaches to the Ras mutant, the targeted protein within the protoplasm, in a unique way. The interfering antibody hinders the growth and division of tumor cells in this way. >< The above pictures show test results of mice with colorectal cancer and fibrosarcoma. You can see that the antibodies targeting Ras mutants effectively hindered the growth of tumor cells. >
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Ajou University’s 'Leaders in INdustry-college Cooperation (LINC)’ Project Group participated in the 19th World-OKTA Leaders Convention for global industry-academia cooperation.The Convention was held from April 26th to the 28th at KINTEX, Goyang City. World-OKTA is the largest association of overseas Korean traders and has 25,000 members in 145 branches in 73 countries. This year, it featured a variety of events, including export consulting meetings for small- and medium-sized companies, under the slogan “Establishment of an Economic Network for the Korean People and the Development of the Korean Economy.”During the event, Ajou University operated a booth to promote the programs carried out by the LINC Project Group. In particular, the University agreed with World-OKTA members to expand global internship partner companies, participate in the business start-up school, and apply for corporate support, etc.In addition, 16 partner companies of Ajou University were represented at the event. Staff members from the companies, including BNC, explained their products to the businesspeople, discussed exports, and shared information about overseas markets. The partner companies plan to continue to work together with the University for education on industry-academia cooperation and support for technological innovation programs, etc.In April, Ajou was selected as a university to participate in the LINC+ Project, the LINC Project follow-up assignment. As a member of the LINC+ Project, the largest financial support project carried out by the Ministry of Education this year, Ajou University aims to become a 'one-stop window for global cooperation.' To achieve this goal, it is executing a variety of programs in partnership with World-OKTA, including on-site internships, education on starting businesses, commercialization of technologies, and support for companies and the local community.* Partner companies of Ajou University participating in the 19th World-OKTA Convention: BNC, Daeyeon, JK Food, Changjin, RINAS, Nano Tronix, Seven 7 Staff, Photonlife, Smatech, Joy Market, Celtrazone, SANE, Kyungwoo, and Daeho
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An undergraduate student team from Ajou University’s Department of Cyber Security won the University Student Category at the Codegate 2017 International Hacking Competition.Codegate 2017 was organized by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning and held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza under the theme "Find Security Solutions through the Wisdom of Humans and Machines." The event, which was held from April 11th to the 13th, included a hacking competition and a global security conference. The hacking competition marked its 10th anniversary this year and was attended by hackers from around the world seeking to demonstrate their abilities.The competition was divided into the Adult, University Student, and Junior Categories. The winning team from Ajou University consisted of Hyeok Ju Kwon, Jae Hyeok Lim, and Shi Hun Lee (Department of Cyber Security), and Jeong Hwan Park (Department of Software Convergence Technology). Their team name is EIP 0X414A4F55, and Professor Man Pyo Hong served as their guiding professor.Team EIP 0X414A4F55 advanced to the finals of the University Student Category after the 24-hour preliminary round on February 10th. In the final round on April 12th, students from 10 universities, including Ajou, Pohang University of Science and Technology, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and Korea University, competed to carry out complicated tasks that reflect recent hacking cases. The winning team received five million won in prize money.Team leader Hyeok Ju Kwon said, "It felt like we were riding a roller-coaster because it was pretty close throughout the competition," adding, "The task in the final round was quite challenging and we learned a lot from the event."Earlier this year, the members of the winning team launched Ajou Cybersecurity Team (ACT), an on-campus society, to prepare for hacking competitions.
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- 작성일2017-04-26
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Ajou University was included in the world's best 200 universities in the '2017 Young University Rankings' released by Times Higher Education (THE), a U.K.-based university evaluation company.On April 5th, THE announced the Young University Rankings, which lists the world’s best 200 universities that are 50 years old or less. Five Korean universities were included in the Rankings, including Pohang University of Science and Technology and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland topped the list, followed by Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. THE releases its annual rankings of the world's best universities based on 13 performance indicators in five areas - Learning Environment (weighting: 30%), Research (30%), Citations (30%), International Outlook (7.5%), and Industry Income (2.5%). According to THE, the Young University Rankings are based on the same indicators, but academic reputation is given a lower weighting.Ajou University was previously included in the 81-90 range of the 2016 rankings of the world's top universities under 50 years old, which was released by QS, another university evaluator based in the U.K. QS began publishing its world university rankings in 2004 based on Academic Peer Review, Citations per Faculty, Employer Reputation, Faculty/Student Ratio, and International Student/Staff Ratio.
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< Pictured above is a relevant article published in The Joongang Ilbo. >The press is showing more interest in Ajou University's Paran Semester, launched last year, as more Korean universities introduce similar programs this year.On March 23rd, The Joongang Ilbo newspaper explained the objectives and activities of Paran Semester in the past year. A related article featured selected project teams that built a race car, participated in the university musical band competition, produced web dramas, and made hardware for virtual reality games, along with an interview of student participants and related photos.On March 22nd, The Kukinews also introduced Paran Semester in an article entitled "Student-led semesters are spreading among universities: any mission is possible." The article introduced Paran Semester and some of its tasks, together with an explanation of the background of the program by President Kim.Earlier on the 9th, The Seoul Economic Newspaper also ran an article entitled 'Universities encourage students to carry out their own missions in addition to attending lectures.' It introduced Paran Semester – when it began, how it is operated, and some of the student tasks – stating that more universities are reflecting student demands into their curriculum.Hanyang University is currently running Project Semester and Konkuk University introduced Dream Semester, both of which are similar to Paran Semester.Last year, 201 students participated in Ajou's Paran Semester with 73 tasks, and this semester, 145 students are working on 33 missions.
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- 작성일2017-03-31
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< Secretary Jean-Vincent Placé gives congratulatory remarks at the opening ceremony of the Francophonie Symposium. >French Secretary of State for Reform Jean-Vincent Placé, who was born in South Korea, visited Ajou University on the morning of March 21st to attend the 2017 Francophonie Symposium held at the University.The Symposium is co-hosted by Ajou University's Center for Korea-Francophone Countries Cooperation and the Francophonie en Corée under the supervision of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) under the theme 'Cultural and Linguistic Diversity: the Francophonie Case.' It kicked off at 10 a.m. on March 21st in Dasan Hall Auditorium and consisted of four different sessions – Education of Foreign Languages Allows for Communication with the World; New Technologies and the Cultural Industry Create New Demand; Olympics: Sports for Peace; and Young Generation: the Future of Francophonie.Upon his arrival at the University, Secretary Placé met with President Dong Yeon Kim before moving to Dasan Hall. President Kim explained the special relationships and history between Ajou University and France and emphasized that 10% of Ajou's sister universities (304 in total) are in France. Secretary Placé said, "This visit is very special to me because I was born here in Suwon, and I want to thank Ajou University for providing support for organizing the Francophonie Symposium. I am working hard to promote the French language and culture, and spread the Korean language and culture in France."President Kim suggested, "Last year, the Indonesian President visited our university for a talk show. Likewise, it would be great if there was an opportunity for Ajou students to communicate with you." Secretary Placé replied, "I also look forward to meeting them later this year or early next year."Secretary Placé was born in Korea in 1968 and adopted by a French family at the age of seven. In 2011, he was elected as a senator in Essonne department in the region of Ile-de-France. Paris is the capital of Ile-de-France, which has the largest population of the 18 French regions with about 12 million. He was appointed as Secretary in February last year.< President Dong Yeon Kim talks with Secretary Jean-Vincent Placé at his office. >
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![[17.6.9] Ajou University Professor Sang Min Jeon discovers a substance that can help treat lung cancer](/app/board/attach/image/43792_1499406260000.do)
