SMWU Research Professor Park Jong-hoon Selected for Ministry's Support Program for Senior Scholars
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- Writer 커뮤니케이션팀
- 보도일자 2026-07-20
Park Jong-hoon, a research professor at the Research Institute of Women's Health, has been selected for the 2026 Support Program for Utilizing Research Capabilities of Domestic Global Scholars, a new initiative launched by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
Newly established this year, the program supports distinguished senior researchers in continuing their work in Korea after retirement. Professor Park served in the Division of Biological Sciences at Sookmyung Women's University for 23 years before retiring in August 2024 and now holds a position as research professor at the Research Institute of Women's Health. Through the program, he will receive a total of 1.125 billion won in research funding over up to five years.
Professor Park's standing as a leading scholar has been further recognized with the 2026 Order of Science and Technology Merit (Innovation Medal), awarded to researchers who have made outstanding contributions to the nation's scientific and technological development. He has published more than 100 papers, including numerous SCIE-indexed studies in biochemistry and molecular biology, and his achievements in national research and development projects and academic society activities were highly regarded in his selection for the program.
Through this project, Professor Park will conduct secretome profiling on cell lines derived from polycystic kidney disease, a hereditary kidney disorder, to identify key factors regulating cell-to-cell interactions. He plans to clarify the link between changes in these interactions and the onset and progression of polycystic kidney disease, proposing a new pathological mechanism.
"We aim to move beyond research centered on individual cyst cells and establish a new paradigm that expands the study of polycystic kidney disease pathology to focus on cell-to-cell networks," Professor Park said.