Professor Kyo Han Ahn (Department of Chemistry) and his team, in a joint research with a Yonsei University group, have developed a new probe for mercury that can be used for imaging organs in living organisms.Mercury is a highly toxic and widespread pollutant, but the existing fluorescence probes for it mostly detected only its inorganic forms. The element is commonly found in organic forms which are much more toxic than inorganic mercury as their lipophilicity allows them to cross biological membranes. Consequently, new ways of detecting organic mercury species, particularly in organisms, was..

Professor Moonhor Ree (Department of Chemistry) and his research group, in a joint research with a Dongguk University Medical School team (Professor Heesoo Kim), successfully synthesized new brush polymers. The newly developed brush polymers are suitable for use in biomedical applications including medical devices and biosensors that require biocompatibility and the reduced possibility of post-operative infection.Because cell membranes play an important role protecting the material inside the cell and maintaining the structure and function of the cell, studies on polymer materials that mimic m..

* 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..

Mad cow disease made headlines in the early 2000s when 4.4 million cattle in the United Kingdom alone were killed as a precaution against it. Now, there may be a way to not only trace the disease in its incubation period but also medically treat it. Professor Daehee Hwang (School of Interdisciplinary Bioscience and Bioengineering) and his group, in collaboration with the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), the McLaughlin Research Institute, the University of California, San Francisco, the Allen Brain Institute, and the European Bioinformatics Institute, have spotted a set of genes that go hay..

Korean scientists have identified the structure of a protein linked to epilepsy and other brain function abnormalities, which they say could present new opportunities in treatment and drug development. In a study published by peer-review European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) Journal, a team of researchers led Kim Kyung-jin of Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) presented the crystal structure of the succinic semialdehyde dehydrogenase (SSADH) protein. SSADH deficiency has been associated with epilepsy and other neurological conditions, and understanding the structure..

POSTECH, joining hands with Dong-A University and Seoul Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., hastens development of a novel sepsis medication materialized with domestic technology.POSTECH team of Professor Sung Ho Ryu and Professor Yoon-Keun Kim (Department of Life Science), in a joint research with Professor Yoe-Sik Bae of Dong-A University, supported by POSCO and Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, has developed peptides that effectively prevent progression of sepsis.In animal experiments, the peptide ligands newly developed for formyl peptide receptor like-1 (FPRL1) in septic mice resulte..

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..

The invention of the scanning tunnel microscope (STM) opened the door to nanoworld, enabling humankind to actually touch and feel the individual atoms at the surface of a material. It has inspired a series of inventions such as the atomic force microscope (AFM), the lateral force microscope (LFM), the magnetic force microscope (MFM), etc. Recently, the scanning probe microscope (SPM), which encompasses all these inventions, has evolved into the millipede technology which has a potential to make competing data storage technologies obsolete. A common denominator of these exciting developments is..