Asan Medical Awards recipients named

Chung Jong-kyeong Kwon Jun-soo

Lee Jeong-ho Kim Sung-han

The Asan Foundation announced Thursday the winners of the sixth Asan Medical Awards, the country’s top prizes in the field of medicine. The foundation also increased the financial award to 700 million won to encourage medical research.

Professor Chung Jong-kyeong at the department of biological sciences at Seoul National University (SNU) was the recipient of the award in the field of basic medical science; while professor Kwon Jun-soo at SNU’s medical college was awarded in the field of clinical medicine. The two will receive 300 million won each.

Professor Chung revealed the genetic mechanism of Parkinson’s disease, and his research was published in Nature. Professor Kwon, who has dedicated himself to research on schizophrenia and obsessive compulsive disorder, developed biological markers for the diseases and thus made a huge contribution to early diagnosis and treatment of them.

The foundation has also started awarding young medical scientists. Professor Lee Jeong-ho at the graduate school of medical science and engineering at KAIST and professor Kim Sung-han at the medical school of Ulsan University were named as winners and will receive 50 million won, each.

Professor Lee has focused his research on brain development disorders. Professor Kim has been under the spotlight for his research on immunity in tuberculosis patients.

The Asan Medical Awards was launched in 2007 to encourage local medical scientists who have made contributions to the enhancement of human health.

The award ceremony is scheduled for March 21.