A project led by Jae Hoon Jung, a professor of biological sciences, selected for “2021 National Top 100 R&D Performance” 

A R&D project led by Professor Jae Hoon Jung (Department of Biological Sciences) has been selected for the 2021 National Top 100 R&D Performance by the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Since 2016, the Ministry of Science and ICT has been nominating the nation’s top 100 outstanding research performances every year to inspire an interest of the general public in science and technology. For this year, out of about 70,000 R&D projects (as of 2020), 852 candidate achievements recommended by offices, ministries, directors were evaluated by the selection committee, and the final 100 were selected through public verification.

A research project led by professor Jae Hoon Jung was selected in the field of Basic Science & Infrastructure as the ‘first establishment of the temperature recognition mechanism of plants by isolation phase of prion-like protein.

A research led by Professor Jae Hoon Jung, which was published in Nature in September 2020, showed for the first time in the field of plant research that prion-like proteins can function as environmental sensors (functioning as temperature sensors in paper). It is evaluated that it has shifted the paradigm of research on plant temperature recognition mechanisms.

Professor Jung said, “Studies applying the concept of isolation phase of prion-like proteins are useful not only for temperature changes, but also for studying plants’ stress-sensitive response mechanisms to external environmental factors that determine crop production such as drought, salt damage, and cold.”

Team members of Plant Biochemistry Lab

(From the left, clockwise) Jangwon Lee, Sol Bi Kim, Kyungho Park, Professor Jae Hoon Jung, Yoon Young Choi, Eun Seo Kim