* Link : http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2009/11/123_56084.htmlCarbon nanotubes, known for their remarkable properties that can be used for advanced electronics and materials, appear to have the potential to be used for combating cancer as well, local scientists said Tuesday.A research team led by Kosin University's Lee Sang-ho and Pohang University of Science and Technology's (POSTECH) Choi Hee-cheul claimed to have discovered a method to allow carbon nanotubes to be used as agents for photo-thermal therapy in a study published by peer-reviewed journal, American Chemical Society (ACS..

* Link : http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/10/117_52814.htmlPohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) has the lowest dropout rate among 188 universities. According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Thursday, POSTECH had 17 students give up their studies at the university last year, out of a total of 1,711 ― 1 percent of the total student body. The average dropout rate among institutes of higher education, including 2-year and 3-year colleges, stood at 5 percent. Among those who left their original schools, 44 percent voluntarily withdrew, 33 per..

A research achievement first published in the world’s foremost chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie by a prominent Korean chemist and his coworkers has gained spotlight with additional coverage in Nature Nanotechnology, Chemistry World and other world’s leading chemistry and medical related journals.Prof. Kimoon Kim and his team at the Dept. of Chemistry have developed a novel approach to the production of polymeric nanocapsules, which has revolutionized our understanding of manufacturing nanocapsules. Furthermore, the research has generated much interest not only from chemists in t..

Spin-valve devices are a key component of a magnetoresistive random access memory. Mr. Woo Youn Kim and Professor Kwang Soo Kim of Department of Chemistry of POSTECH predicted supermagnetoresistance in a graphene nanoribbon device, the article of which has appeared in Nature Nanotech (3, 408-412, 2008). The reported graphene nanoribbon spin-valve device shows extremely large magnetoresistance (ten thousand times larger than that of conventional devices), which promises high speed access, and good sensitivity. The striking enhancement originates from the peculiar symmetry of band structures of ..

Professor Seung-Hoon Jhi and Ph.D. Candidate Seon-Myeong Choi, both of the Department of Physics, in their study of metal doped graphene nanoribbons, discovered that the adsorbed metal atoms form atomic chains which can be used as reagents to identify the edge atomic structures of the graphene nanoribbons and also as gate-driven spin valves to control the spin current in graphene nanoribbons. Graphene, the basic structural element of all graphitic materials including graphite, carbon nanotubes and fullerenes, is a one-atom-thick planar sheet of carbon atoms that are densely packed in a honeyco..

First drug delivery method developed for mitochondrial diseasesWhat do Huntington’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease (familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; the disease the physicist Stephen Hawking is suffering from) and Alzheimer’s disease have in common? The answer is mitochondria; these diseases are now called mitochondrial diseases.These incurable degenerative neurological or neuromuscular diseases, together with apoptosis (programmed cell death) and aging, are understood to occur largely at mitochondria sites. What then are mitochondria? Mitochondria (plural of mitochondr..

In the April1 issue of G&D, a Korean research team led by Dr. Kyong-Tai Kim (POSTECH) describes how melatonin production is coordinated with the body‘s natural sleep/wake cycles.Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland in the brain, which helps to regulate our bodies’ circadian rhythm (the roughly-24-hour cycle around which basic physiological processes proceed). Normally, melatonin production is inhibited by light and enhanced by darkness, usually peaking in the middle of the night. Melatonin‘s expression pattern is mimicked by a protein called AANAT, which is..

According to laws of quantum mechanics a physical entity may possess either particle-like or wave-like properties. A particle exhibits wave properties when one cannot tell the path the particle may take among different paths available. Once the path information is obtained, however, the wave-like properties of a particle are supposed to disappear. In any case, it is not possible to observe both the wave and particle properties simultaneously, which is known as complementarity of a physical entity. In early days around the advent of quantum mechanics the concept of complementarity was considere..

Ultrahigh density arrays of conducting polymer nanorods have been fabricated through a joint research project by Professors Jin Kon Kim and Su-Moon Park of Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Dr. Jae-Woong Yu of Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), and Professor Thomas P. Russell of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, U.S.A., as reported in Nano Letters, vol. 8, 2315-2320 (2008). Nanoporous templates, for instance, track-etched polymer membrane and anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) membrane, have been widely used to prepare conducting polymer nanotubes, nano..

Practical recombinant hybrid mussel bioadhesiveWhat man-made good exists that provides us both life’s necessity and luxury? A popular seafood cuisine, mussels are enjoyed all around the world. They can be smoked, boiled, or steamed to be served alone or as an ingredient of a larger dish. It can also produce beautiful pearls and jewelry. Now scientists have discovered another use for this nature’s gift. Professor Hyung Joon Cha and his team at the Department of Chemical Engineering have developed a novel type of practical recombinant hybrid bioadhesive material that originates from ..