Professor Kwon Diabetes* is one of the most common diseases among Korean people, and it is a disease where blood sugar remains at a high level. If the blood sugar level in the body is constantly high, various complications such as retinal disease, kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease can occur, which means that controlling the blood sugar level is very important for diabetics. There are type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and among the drugs that control type 2 diabetes, there is a natural hormone produced in the human body called glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1). When this hormone is secreted, it has a positive effect of lowering blood sugar, but there is a problem that its half-life inside the body is only 3 minutes. We continued the research, thinking that it is absolutely necessary to make its medicinal effect last longer in the blood, and we could come to gain a small achievement.
*diabetes mellitus

Professor Kwon Among synthetic drugs, there is a drug called metformin that is primarily given to diabetics with light symptoms. For serious cases of diabetes for whom this drug cannot stabilize symptoms, the prescription of this GLP-1 peptide can be very useful. If diabetes continues, complications can develop and the patient can be at great risk.

Researcher Park Like the professor said, this treatment can help severe cases of diabetes. It improved the discomfort from frequent injections by increasing the half-life of GLP-1, which has a problem of having a short half-life.

Professor Kwon If the injection was required every ten hours in the past, the patient only needs to take the injection once a day or even once a week now. The ultimate goal of our research is to increase the convenience for diabetics by increasing the injection interval up to once a month. The longer the effect lasts, the longer the injection interval becomes.

Professor Kwon To understand the reason the School of Materials Science and Engineering engaged in this type of research, it is necessary to review the history of GIST briefly. GIST had five departments when it was founded. Because GIST was established to lead research projects that are differentiated from other universities, the School of Materials Science and Engineering chose biomaterials as its major field of research as it had not been explored much in other institutions. The current research on biomaterials in the School of Materials Science and Engineering follows this tradition. Recently, the School of Materials Science and Engineering is showing much interest in drug delivery systems and is increasing its activities around the subject. This is a drug delivery system in a broad sense, but it is the material with medicinal effect or the drug or the protein material with medicinal effect that we are interested in. We also engage in a joint research with other teams in application of the material.

Professor Kwon First, there is a cure for gout. Gout is a disease where the uric acid in the body is not dissolved in water and discharged out of the body, but it builds up in the body to cause severe pain. The principle of gout treatment is to break down the uric acid in the body so that it will dissolve in water easily, but the problem is that this process produces toxic hydrogen peroxide. The accumulation of hydrogen peroxide inside the body can adversely affect various cells, and we focused on gold nanoparticles that break down the hydrogen peroxide. Our studies have shown that the combined application of gold nanoparticles and gout treatment can reduce toxicity in the body and accelerate the breakdown of uric acid. Prior to this research on increasing the half-life for diabetes treatment, we developed another method called the sustained release technique which wraps water soluble hydrogel in a polymer to slowly release the drug when it is inside the body. It is an approach to control the rate of release into the body for gout drugs. In addition, other successful research results have been achieved, thankfully, such as the technique of increasing the drug load by adding vitamins and glaucoma treatment to contact lenses.

Professor Kwon I would say the research on the ligands of albumin. One of many roles of albumin is to move fatty acids. Fatty acids also form cell membranes, and if fatty acids are directly bound to proteins instead of albumin and injected, they bind to albumin in the blood and have a prolonged effect. Previously, it was only successful with small-sized peptide drugs, such as for diabetes treatments, but we recently revealed that the effect of the treatment can last for a long time by attaching fatty acids to gout treatments that are several times larger. Adding fatty acids to these large sized gout treatments has never been successful.

Researcher Park Professor Kwon is a person of a great character. I really want to emphasize that. He treats his students like a gentleman. He always uses honorifics with his students. We are grateful that we always feel respected by him not only during research meetings but also during personal conversations. He always listens to students, thinks from the students' perspective, and tries to be considerate. Most of all, during research or when preparing for a presentation, he checks and pays attention to the students in organizing the research results. In that way, we learn a lot from the professor and naturally develop a wish to become a research mentor like him.

Professor Kwon Joon-yong Park is an internal medicine specialist, and he came to GIST for a doctoral program. Being a specialist, he would have been a team leader with many young doctors under him in a large hospital, but after he came here for the doctorate program, he became the youngest member of the lab. He does not say it, but he must have had many difficulties. I was worried that he might not adjust well, but I am not concerned at all now. He is not authoritative and does not try to take control based on his age, but he made a lot of effort to learn when he was learning. He achieved individual results through his research, but he also made a lot of contributions to the lab within a short period. He is married and already has a baby and expecting thae second baby, which would make him busy, while preparing for graduation next spring, but he gladly took on the difficult job as the head of the lab. I am very grateful that he is doing his best as a researcher at home and in the lab while leading juniors well as well as playing the role of my eldest brother in the lab.

Researcher Park When I first came to GIST, I was impressed by the facilities for students such as campus welfare facilities. I think that the environment and facilities have been well provided so that students can fully enjoy what they want to do and spend their leisure time freely and broadly when living at GIST. Surely, such full support at GIST has been quite helpful to research activities.

Professor Kwon The research on diabetes treatment is more of an applied research than basic research. The closer it is to an applied research, the easier it is for the general public to understand how it is more helpful to them, whereas the closer it is to a basic research, the more difficult it is to understand. Because GIST is more focused on basic research, it is difficult to receive support for assignments on these applied studies, and students also feel that they are receiving more or less unfavorable criticism in publishing papers in named journals to graduate. I think it is the time to take a leap and become a school that promotes a balance between basic and applied research. If that happens, it will make more progresses externally while producing academic achievements.

Professor Kwon The government shoulders the entire tuition fee, and the school bears a large part of personnel expenses to provide an excellent environment where students can devote themselves to research. Also, many professors are engaged in science and engineering, and students are receiving direct help through discussions with professors of other departments. I think it is a great place for students to immerse themselves in research as it is less affected by the stress of city life while overall facilities are generally available. I hope that many students achieve their dreams at GIST.

Researcher Park Recently, I saw a YouTube video that compares institutes of science and technology with other science and engineering universities, ordinary universities, and graduate schools. The video pointed out that the disadvantage of the institutes of science and technology is that it is difficult to enjoy cultural life because there is no campus life and the institutes are located far from the city. However, if you actually visit GIST, you will not find that disadvantage. GIST is proud that it only has the best advantages in all aspects including those related to research activities as it is close to the city and has excellent research infrastructures. If you choose GIST, you will always hear the praise within yourself that you have made the right choice.