Professor Kyeong Kyu Kim from School of Medicine at SKKU, 

won an Inwon Park Academic Excellence Prize by the Korean Chemical Society

Professor Kyeong Kyu Kim, school of medicine at SKKU, won an Inwon Park Academic Excellence Prize at the spring conference of the Korean Chemical Society (Chairman, Ok Sang Chung) in 2020, held at the Suwon Convention Center from July 6 (Mon) to 7 (Tue).

The Park In-won Academic Award was established in 2014 to honor the achievements of Professor In Won Park, who developed the domestic biochemistry field, and is awarded to researchers who have greatly contributed to the development of the biochemistry field with outstanding research achievements.

Professor Kyeong Kyu Kim won this prize for his achievements in research on the three-dimensional structure and function of the heteromorphic nucleic acid.

The nucleic acids present in vivo are mostly B-type nucleic acids with double helix structures that wind to the right, and these nucleic acids with different structures from those B-type nucleic acids are called heteromorphic nucleic acids. Through his research on Z-type nucleic acids, a type of diagonal nucleic acid with a left spiral structure, he has identified the connection structure between B-type nucleic acids and the mechanism in which B-type nucleic acids are transformed into Z-type nucleic acids. It was also established that if a type of dichotomous nucleic acid is created within the virus' genes, this structure inhibits the transcription process of the virus. Professor Kim studies the structure and function of the heteromorphic nucleic acid and finds that it is an important factor in controlling cell function.