Inspiring Future, Grand Challenge
Regular Light to Moderate Alcohol Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Findings from a SKKU-Harvard Collaborative Research Group May lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, but is not recommended as a means of prevention Food Science and Biotechnology Prof. HUR, JINHEE
Regular Light to Moderate Alcohol Consumption and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: Findings from a SKKU-Harvard Collaborative Research Group May lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, but is not recommended as a means of prevention Food Science and Biotechnology Prof. HUR, JINHEE Prof. Jinhee Hur from the Department of Food Science and Biotechnology at Sungkyunkwan University (President Ji-Beom Yoo), in collaboration with investigators from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, has reported that regular light to moderate alcohol consumption* may be associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The findings are based on up to 40 years of follow-up from the three large-scale prospective cohorts in the US—the Nurses’ Health Study I and II, and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study—involving 200,969 women and men. (*Defined as less than 15 g/day for women and less than 30 g/day for men) While excessive alcohol consumption is clearly linked to increased risk of cancers, liver diseases, mental health issues, and injuries, the association between light to moderate drinking and health outcomes, particularly the risk of type 2 diabetes, remains inconsistent across prior studies. Furthermore, limited studies have addressed how specific drinking patterns—including frequency, beverage type, and whether alcohol is consumed with meals—may influence diabetes risk. To address these evidence gaps, the collaborative research group conducted a comprehensive analysis examining not only the amount of alcohol consumed but also various drinking patterns and their combined consequences on the development of type 2 diabetes. Prof. Hur, a corresponding author of the article, emphasized, “Our findings suggest that regular light to moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a significantly lower risk of type 2 diabetes in both men and women; however, this should not be interpreted as a recommendation to initiate drinking for diabetes prevention.” She further noted, “Given the well-established, wide range of physical and mental health issues associated with alcohol consumption, a cautious and balanced interpretation is needed.” This research was supported by the US National Institutes of Health and the National Research Foundation of Korea. It was published in the July 2025 issue of Diabetes Care (impact factor: 16.6). The study was highly acknowledged for its sophisticated and multidimensional analysis of alcohol consumption and drinking patterns with risk of type 2 diabetes, and thus received an invited commentary underscoring its academic significance by world-leading experts in the relevant disciplines. - Title: Alcohol intake, drinking pattern, and risk of type 2 diabetes in three prospective cohorts of U.S. women and men - Journal: Diabetes Care (IF: 16.6, top 2.9% in endocrinology & metabolism) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.2337/dc24-1902
Sungkyunkwan University Research Team Develops Standardized Technology for cell free (cf) RNA Extraction and Analysis
Sungkyunkwan University Research Team Develops Standardized Technology for cell free (cf) RNA Extraction and Analysis Pioneering a New Horizon in Liquid Biopsy for Early Disease Diagnosis and Therapeutic Target Discovery Published as the first author in the prestigious international journal Nature (U.S.) Integrative Biotechnology Prof. JEON, YOUNG-JUN Suwon, South Korea – A research team led by Professor Young-Jun Jeon from the Department of Integrative Biotechnology at Sungkyunkwan University, in collaboration with Stanford University School of Medicine, has successfully developed the world's first standardized method for the extraction and bioinformatics-based analysis of cf- transcriptome from human blood samples. Since the clinical potential of cf-mRNA was first proposed in Science in 2018, its utility has been continuously validated across numerous studies. However, limitations in reproducibility and environmental variability in clinical settings have hindered its translation into actual clinical applications—issues common across all areas of liquid biopsy. To address these challenges, Professor Young-Jun Jeon initially proposed and began developing this platform during his postdoctoral period at Stanford University in 2016. After joining Sungkyunkwan University in 2020, he continued to refine the methodology through ongoing research and collaboration, ultimately succeeding in standardizing both plasma transcriptome extraction and data generation processes. A key outcome of the study was the development of the RARE-Seq platform, which focuses on detecting approximately 5,500 rare cf-mRNAs not typically found in healthy individuals. Based on the hypothesis that some of these rare transcripts may serve as biomarkers for various diseases, targeted analysis was performed. The platform demonstrated the highest sensitivity among current liquid biopsy technologies and was validated in pilot clinical studies, including early detection of lung cancer. Professor Jeon commented, “RARE-Seq, by targeting the transcriptome, enables comprehensive diagnostics and the discovery of patient-specific therapeutic targets across virtually all diseases. Building on this, we have developed an AI-based analytic technology called LUNA-Seq to further maximize the platform’s accuracy.” He added, “We have secured multiple research grants from the National Research Foundation of Korea and are currently conducting clinical research applying this platform to areas such as immunotherapy response prediction in lung cancer, early detection of pancreatic and prostate cancer, bipolar disorder, and Alzheimer's disease.” - RARE-Seq: A sequencing method designed to selectively analyze genes with low expression levels in healthy individuals to extract disease-specific signals. - LUNA-Seq: An AI-based analytical platform that enhances RARE-Seq by also analyzing commonly expressed genes to identify disease-specific patterns. This groundbreaking research was supported by the Basic Research Laboratory program of the National Research Foundation of Korea and conducted in partnership with Stanford University School of Medicine. The findings were published in Nature, one of the most prestigious international journals, showcasing Korea’s world-class capabilities in the field of liquid biopsy. - Title of the Paper: An ultrasensitive method for detection of cell-free RNA - Journal: Nature - DOI: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08834-1 - Corresponding Author: Maximilian Diehn - First Author: Young-Jun Jeon
Food Camp(Department of Food Science and Biotechnology) successfully held
The Department of Food Science and Biotechnology held a Food Camp, an event representing the department, online through Webex at 18:00 on September 24 (Friday) in consideration of the COVID-19 situation. Through a survey of enrolled students in March, many students gathered opinions that they hope to take part in events for academic exchange to overcome difficulties in non-face-to-face classes and communication between student-student and professor-student after COVID-19. As face-to-face events were not possible, the 46th student council FOODing of the Department of Food Science and Biotechnology organized an online event and recruited students from the Department of Food Science and Biotechnology and College of Science to hold the event. Starting with the head of the department's greeting, the event ended part 1 by forming a group session with students in college of science and students in department of food science, and part 2 by having consultation time with graduates about the experience in the field of industry. In anticipation of difficulties in exchanging all participants due to online events, a five-member group was able to greet each other more closely, and non-face-to-face classes provided an opportunity to narrow the distance through group session activities. After the group session, all participants were able to actively participate in the event by emitting teamwork skills, and by playing games on food-related topics that matched their major in the department, it was possible to arouse interest in food and biotechnology. Professor Han-min, Woo, head of the Department of Food and Biotechnology, said, "It's a pity that we haven't been able to hold a food camp face-to-face since COVID-19, but we look forward to the possibility of a face-to-face event in 2022 and." and expressed thank for the student council for their efforts on the Food Camp.
Course Information(Department of Integrative Biotechnology)
What do we learn in the department of Integrative Biotechnology? - Course information by professors Please find the video clip in the below link: https://youtu.be/a5_xHap35vQ
Course Information(Department of Bio-Mechatronic Engineering)
What do we learn in the department of Bio-Mechatronic Engineering? - Course information by professors Please find the video clip in the below link: https://youtu.be/L9a2JaMPpVg
Course Information(Department of Food Science and Biotechnology)
What do we learn in the department of Food Science and Biotechnology? - Course information by professors Please find the video clip in the below link: https://youtu.be/mWE6V2CnXJg?t=9
The research team led by Prof. Geun-hyung Kim Succeeded in regenerating muscle tissue by developing bio-technologies
The research team of the Dept. of Bio-Mechatronic Engineering Succeeded in regenerating muscle tissue by developing bio-ink and cell-printing technologies -Increases muscle tissue regeneration dramatically through the development of artificial tissues that lead to the growth and arrangement of muscle cells and tissues. The team led by Prof. Geun-hyung Kim, the Dept. of Bio-Mechatronic Engineering, has succeeded in developing bio-making technology that can regenerate muscle tissue and bio-ink for cell-printing that includes living cells. The research team enhanced the tissue regeneration effect by inducing living cells in bio-ink to grow in one direction, just like the actual muscles. Organizational regenerative engineering has been developed with the goal of maximizing regenerative effect by transplanting artificial tissue similar to actual tissue in the area of the human lesion. For this purpose, cell-printing, which produces artificial tissue from bio-ink containing living cells, is being used. Today's commonly used bio-ink and cell-printing processes have limited to cell alignment. The team led by Prof. Geun-hyung Kim developed the existing bio-material-based bio-ink based on two technologies that control the growth and arrangement of cells through the cell-printing process. "The research is a new concept of cell-printing process technology that controls the arrayability of nanoparticles or directly arranges cells through synthetic polymer. ", said Prof. Kim. "This technique is a more effective and new way to regenerate not only skeletal muscle but also the arrayed tissue existing in the human body, such as myocardium and ligaments," he explained. The studies were conducted with the support of the basic research support project of National Research Foundation of Korea (the Ministry of Education and Science Technology). These studies were also published in the world-renowned journal Nano Letters (impact factor 12.279) and Biomaterials (impact factor 10.273), the top international journals in the field of biomaterials. Figure 1. Cell growth, maturation, and successful regeneration of muscle tissue produced with 3D cell-printing mimetic diagram using collagen-based bio-ink including gold-nano particles. Figure 2. 3D cell-printing mimetic diagram of arranged phototropic exoplastic cell structures and comparison of cell activity and maturity with arrayed gelatin-based structures and cell structures of general extracellular matrix (source: ChosunBiz, https://biz.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2019/11/27/2019112702158.html?utm_source=naver&utm_medium=original&utm_campaign=biz YonhapNews, https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20191126110900063?input=1195m)
SKKU Ranks No.1 in Korean Comprehensive University by Joong Ang Daily
SKKU consecutively Ranks No.1 in Korean Comprehensive University by Joong Ang Daily Out of 56 comprehensive universities in Korea, the Joong Ang Daily evaluated the universities’ performances and SKKU was named No.2 in Korean University Rankings by the Joong Ang Daily, followed by Seoul National University (No.1 among Korean comprehensive university). Hanyang University placed in 3rd and Korea University and Yonsei University (Seoul) came in 4th fourth jointly. Sungkyunkwan University was ranked at the top with the second place in terms of education condition and student education and third place in Faculty research. The University Assessment Team surveyed 1,800 high school teachers who send students to colleges, corporate personnel recruiting college graduates, and middle and high school parents who are interested in colleges. The number of respondents in each region was determined in consideration of the number of population by country and province, and the sampling was randomized to increase the validity of the survey.
The seminar of BioCosmetics will be held to share innovation and development of Anyang's cosmetics industry
The seminar will be held to share innovation and development of Anyang's cosmetics industry through the spread of technology for the fourth industrial revolution. Sungkyunkwan Univ. BioCosmetics UNIC, Sungkyunkwan Univ. LINC+ Business Team, K-Beauty Business Association, and the IT-Beauty Convergence Association Promotion Committee will host this seminar on the theme: "Innovation and development of Anyang's industries through the expansion of the fourth industrial revolution" at the Anyang Gwacheon Chamber of Commerce on December 4. The seminar featured "fourth industrial revolution" and "smart beauty," "tailored cosmetics," "green natural materials," "innovation," "Big Data," "AI" and "platform" as the main keywords, and will be presented on these topics. Prof. Kim Sung-kyu (head of BioCosmetics UNIC Center at Sungkyunkwan Univ.), Prof. Noh Ho-sik (head of Beauty Science Center at Suwon University), Jung Eui-su (CEO of Danjoung Bio-global natural science company), Jung Se-hee (director of Deardahlia-prestige vegan beauty company), and Cho Young-deuk (CEO of CY company) will participate in the seminar. The presentation of the seminar will be followed by presentations on themes such as ▲Development of Natural Materials ▲ Cosmetics Development Platform ▲ Korean Beauty, Domestic and Global Smart Sales Strategy Using Online ▲The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Personalized Cosmetics. Prof. Kim Sung-kyu is also expected to deliver a lecture on "Developing a Platform to Respond to the Fourth Industrial Revolution of Sungkyunkwan University" prior to the presentation of each topic. The seminar will focus on the Anyang area and cover academic officials, students and workers related to bio-cosmetics companies in Gunpo, Uiwang and Suwon. Applications for the seminar will be received in the field and for more information about the seminar, you can inquire by e-mailing: sukim590@g.skku.edu. (source: http://www.cosinkorea.com/news/article.html?no=33564)
The 10th Jamboree was successfully held on November 7th (Thu)
On November 7th (Thu), Jamboree, the 10th conference of College of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, was successfully held at the Auditorium, B1, Samsung Library. The event consisted of a variety of programs including presentations by the five teams on the finals, an invitational lecture and prizes. In preparation for the aging population and the growth of the elderly population, Jamboree sought to create a market for the silver generation only from the perspective of the 4th industrial age. The student contest was held under the theme of <Smart Silver Industry: 4th Industry and Biotechnology for Health Promotion of the Silver Generation>. Five teams selected in the preliminary tournament in mid-September advanced to the finals and ranked first to third in consideration of the student's evaluation. After the contest, Sang-Hyun Mo, CEO of BIO-FD & C and a graduate of Dept. of Genetic Engineering (Dept. of Intergrative Biotechnology in present) at Sungkyunkwan University, gave a special lecture on the theme of <About the Goal and Immersion: Creation and Commercialization of Ideas>. It has become a valuable and meaningful time for students who live in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era to deliver the necessary attitudes of learning and thinking from an industry-academy perspective. After the completion of Jamboree, various events were held, including congratulatory speeches of Deans of each department, recreational games for each major, and club performances. The event, which was successfully completed with the active participation of the members of College of Biotechnology and Bioengineering, was an opportunity to share the joy of university life and to build solidarity among the members.
SKKU' s LINC + Business Team will hold the 2nd SKKU UNIC Innovation Growth Conference 2019
Sungkyunkwan University will hold the 2nd SKKU UNIC Innovation Growth Conference 2019 at COEX, Seoul, December 9, with the theme of national-industry-university innovation strategy leading industrial transformation. This year's conference, organized by Sungkyunkwan University's LINC + Business Team, consists of various agendas that focus on analyzing new ecosystems in the age of industrial transformation, including artificial intelligence (AI), smart factories, 5G, and big data. The conference will begin with the morning keynote speech, followed by the afternoon program on Track A-D. In Track B, cases of biocosmetic application, △ Biocosmetic market changes and the 4th Industrial Revolution (Cho Yong-wan, Director of Digital Platform, SAP Korea) △ Research for customers in the age of digital (Jun-yeol Moon, Representative of Insight Korea) △ Globalization of K-Beauty (Young-deuk Jo, Representative of CY) △ K-Design (Young-wook Kim, Representative of LS Cosmetics) will be announced as a major agenda. This conference is a free event that will be pre-registered until December 7 through its dedicated website. (source: http://news1.kr/articles/?3761238)
SKKU among Top 3 Korean Universities in 2020 US News Rankings
SKKU among Top 3 Korean Universities in 2020 US News Rankings In the recent “Best Global Universities Rankings” announced by U.S. News & World Report, Sungkyunkwan University took 195th place. The top 3 universities in Korea are Seoul National University (128th), Sungkyunkwan University (195th) and KAIST (252nd). Harvard University took first place in the ranking. In this year’s ranking, the number of participating countries and universities have increased. The number of countries increased from 75 to 81 and 1,500 universities were listed in the ranking.
This site does not support JavaScript may connote normally invisible.
2025-12-16
2019-12-16
2019-12-03
