World-Renowned Scientist Wah Chiu, Stanford University Professor and Honorary Advisor to Pohang City, visited Korea at the invitation of the Coree Group

- Seminar presentation at the invitation of Dx&Vx and Coree Group

SEOUL, South Korea, Aug. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Professor Wah Chiu, who visited Korea at the invitation of the Coree Group, led by Chairman Lim Chong Yoon, an inside director of Hanmi Pharmaceutical and the largest shareholder of Dx&Vx, holds a Ph.D. in biophysics from UC Berkeley and is the world's leading authority in the field of molecular imaging that combines AI technology with cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) technology.

On the 21st, Professor Wah Chiu, a world-renowned scientist at Stanford University in the United States known for his work on molecular structure, was appointed as honorary advisor to Pohang City.

Professor Wah Chiu's molecular imaging is a research technique that quantifies and analyzes biological phenomena such as metabolic changes and disease-causing substances that occur at the molecular level, and is based on cryogenic electron microscopy technology that is optimized for examining molecular structures and interactions that require direct 3-D visualization. Professor Wah Chiu has played a major role in revealing the structures of viruses, chaperonins, membrane proteins, ion channels, antigen-antibody complexes, and protein-RNA complexes.

The industry is acknowledging the fact that Professor Wah Chiu's recent research and publications will bring about a paradigm shift in new therapeutic development. Professor Wah Chiu is currently developing a new image processing and modeling algorithm for cryo-EM structure determination, and it is expected that applying this technology will lead to groundbreaking and significant progresses in the biomedical industry.

On the 19th, Professor Wah Chiu visited the Institute of Membrane Proteins (IMP) and the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory at POSTECH, toured the related facilities, and met with affiliated faculty. Professor Wah Chiu was pleasantly surprised at the state-of-the-art facilities of POSTECH and the researchers' will to conduct new drug development research, and expressed his will to continuously cooperate with Korean scholars to lay the foundation for the development of blockbuster therapeutics. In addition, he conveyed his intention to actively disseminate Stanford University's cryogenic electron microscope technology, conduct collaborative research, and foster successors through open innovation with domestic and foreign researchers.

After finishing the meeting at POSTECH, Professor Wah Chiu visited Coree Pohang and shared his opinions on the establishment of vaccine research and production infrastructure within the KHUB site that the Coree Group is promoting.

On the 21st, Professor Wah Chiu attended the 3rd seminar of the Korea Future Medical Innovation Research Association and expressed his bold ambition, saying, "I am well aware of the desire for medical reform and new drug development in Korea, and I plan to actively share Stanford's specialized molecular imaging-based new drug development know-how and facilities so that junior scientists with big dreams can fully realize their dreams." He plans to further explore next generation of optics and image processing tools by incorporating AI based algorithms. Such research will be essential for basic biology, drug and vaccine design, and positively affect human and planetary health. Meanwhile, Mayor Kang-Deok Lee of Pohang presented Professor Wah Chiu with a certificate of appointment as an honorary advisor to Pohang City, emphasizing the will for mutual cooperation.

source: Dx&Vx