Seoul, October 30, 2009 - Merck Limited Korea (President: Mr. Juergen Koenig), the Korean affiliate of Germany-based Merck KGaA, announced the first winners of its "'Merck Young Scientist Award for Bioscience." The award ceremony and lectures were held October 29 during the international conference of KSMBMB (the Korean Society of Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology). The award was presented by Ms. Christina Shasserre, General Manager of Global Bioscience, EMD Chemicals1, and Mr. Hans Ahl, Senior Sales Director of Global Sales Development & Sales Operations, EMD Chemicals.
In order to discover and encourage young and able talents, the Merck Young Scientist Award was first established in the USA in 2007 and is currently given out in countries such as Australia, Japan, Malaysia, and the Philippines etc. Merck Korea has decided to run and support the award jointly with Merck KGaA and KSMBMB, and to continue the selection on an annual basis.
The first-place Merck Young Scientist Award for 2009 went to Inha Heo, a Ph.D. candidate in the Narry Kim Lab, School of Biological Sciences at Seoul National University. The entry is "TUT4 in concert with Lin28 suppresses microRNA biogenesis through pre-microRNA uridylation" and was published in the Ausust 2009 edition of Cell.
"I would like to express my thanks to Merck Korea and KSMBMB for their support and encouragement for my research. And I will strive to achieve further developments in the field of bioscience," Inha Heo commented after the ceremony. In addition, the second-place winner, Dr. Shin-Young Park in Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, Hanyang University, said that she will persevere in her efforts to be a better scientist and expressed her special thanks to professors and researchers in the same lab.
The first winner's paper details the biogenesis of microRNA Let-7. It identified a new polymerase TuT4 that causes uridinylation. TuT4 is identified as a suppressor of micro RNA production in cell and may have significance in cancer research. Let-7 is a regulator of cell proliferation and differentiation and by blocking its activity cell proliferation can be stopped. This research may also have significance in stem cell biology research because TuT4 has an important role in maintaining stem cells in an undifferentiated state.
The purpose of the award is to select scientists with excellent research performance in the life science area, which is regarded as a future growth engine, and to encourage young scientists to focus on their research and bring along future star researchers who will play a pivotal role in the development of the field. With the award, Merck will further consolidate its position as an innovative partner to the life science field in Korea.
