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  • Sookmyung student wins KOGO award for AI omics work
    Sookmyung student wins KOGO award for AI omics work SEOUL, September 30 (AJP) - A graduate student at Sookmyung Women's University won an excellent poster award at South Korea's leading genomics conference for research on an artificial intelligence platform that helps scientists find drug targets in vast sets of biological data, the prominent university in Seoul said Wednesday. Lee Seung-yeon, a master's student in the university's Department of Biological Sciences, received the award on Sept. 5 at the Korea Genome Organization's 35th international annual conference, Sookmyung said. She is advised by Professor Yoon Suk-joon. The Korea Genome Organization (KOGO) holds the conference each year to share the latest research in genomics and bioinformatics, the field that uses computing to make sense of biological data. Lee's poster was titled "Biological intelligence for target, biomarker and mechanism discovery from omics data." The research introduced Q-omics, an AI-based platform built to mine omics data. Omics refers to large-scale measurements of a cell's molecules, such as every gene it carries or every protein it makes. A single study can produce millions of data points. According to the university, Q-omics lets researchers analyze that data without running complex computational work themselves. It is designed to identify therapeutic targets, the genes or proteins a drug can act on, and biomarkers, the measurable signs in the body that indicate disease or how a patient responds to treatment. The core of the work is how the AI model learns. The researchers built a biological ontology, a structured catalog of what genes are known to do and how those functions relate, directly into the model's learning structure. Earlier approaches focused on analyzing genes one at a time. Q-omics instead learns the functional relationships among genes within their biological context, the university said. From that, it can map the gene interactions and functional modules, groups of genes that work together, that appear in a specific disease. Sookmyung said it expects the approach to help find target genes and biomarkers for treating disease, predict how patients respond to drugs, and explain how diseases develop and progress. Defaults applied since the open items were not settled: Lee Seung-yeon as the romanization and Department of Biological Sciences as the department name, taken from Yoon's published affiliation. Swap either if Sookmyung uses something different. September 30, 2026
  • The Power of Transparency in Industry: Lessons from Global Leaders
    The Power of Transparency in Industry: Lessons from Global Leaders The South Korean stock market trembles at the news of a Chinese semiconductor companys IPO. Industries such as shipbuilding, automotive, batteries, and smartphones have sequentially lost their leading positions, and now even advanced memory sectors are feeling the pressure. Competing with China through sheer volume and speed is a strategy destined for failure.The crisis facing South Korean industry is not merely an industrial crisis but a crisis of spirit and philosophy. The resources needed to respond to China are not capital or factory size, but transparency. It is essential to internalize both external transparency, mandated by the system, and internal transparency, achieved by industry players themselves. The Nordic and Baltic countries serve as excellent benchmarks; we must start anew with a mindset geared toward a century of innovative reform, building on what they have achieved from the depths of defeat and territorial loss.Transparency is Industry, Not MoralityPhilosopher Byung-Chul Han, in his book The Transparency Society, warns that the transparency modern individuals blindly trust is a digital panopticon designed by capital and systems to control humanity. While he is correct, he refers to external transparency, whereas our industry currently requires both external and internal transparency. For Kierkegaard, this means shedding the crowds shell and standing alone before truth, while for Kant, it involves purging greed and distrust from the inner courtroom. For Hannah Arendt, it is the act of creating irreplaceable value among the three forms of human labor: labor, work, and action.On the opposite side lies the shell industry. Enron disappeared after pouring resources into accounting fraud and stock price manipulation. In the South Korean stock market, cases of split and duplicate listings leave small shareholders with nothing but shells. China has graduated from the factory model invented by the U.S. and is now poised to control 33% of global manufacturing, with projections suggesting it will soon reach 45%. Moreover, South Koreas last bastion of advanced memory is rapidly being pursued.Finding Strength Within: Lessons from VestasDenmark, with a population just one-tenth that of South Korea, maintains its position as the market leader outside China, despite the latters dominance of six out of the top ten global wind power companies. This resilience stems from a philosophy of self-discovery that turned its gaze inward after losing one-third of its territory and 40% of its population following the Second Schleswig War in 1864. The poet Holsts slogan, Let us find what we lost outside within, was embodied by Enrico Dalgas, who dedicated his life to reclaiming the sandy lands of Jutland, and Grundtvig, who established folk schools that excluded exams and degrees, cultivating the soil of the spirit. In this space, where class masks were unnecessary, the living words exchanged became a form of trust capital, converging costs of surveillance and control to near zero.The industrial flowering of this soil is exemplified by the Thisted wind project. When the government and large capital insisted that nuclear power was the only alternative, teachers and students from the Thisted alternative school dug the foundation with shovels and hand-carved 24-meter blades to complete a 2-megawatt generator in 1978. These self-reliant individuals created blueprints and know-how, distributing them freely worldwide. This was an act of altruistic transparency, offering knowledge without conditions. On this blueprint, nineteen-year-old Henrik Stiesdal self-taught himself to assemble the generator, and the small ironworks Vestas recognized the technology, leading to a licensing agreement in 1979 that propelled it to become the worlds leading wind power company.Honesty in Business: The Philips and ASML ExampleWhen Gerard Philips and his brother started their light bulb business in a dilapidated factory in Eindhoven in 1891, their father, Frederik Philips, stipulated that no dishonest money should be earned. This principle, which emphasizes transparency in financial statements and refraining from deceiving customers or appropriating partners intellectual property, has become ingrained in the DNA of ASML, a subsidiary of Philips, over a century later.The philosophy of honesty flourished at the Philips Physics Research Institute, founded by physicist Gilles Holst in 1914. By eliminating bureaucracy and ensuring autonomy, members shared data and hypotheses without concealing failures, establishing a prototype of psychological safety. ASML, which became independent from Philips in 1984, began as a project with 47 engineers in an old tent. Chief Technology Officer Martin van den Brink, after being directly contradicted by a young engineer during a meeting, admitted, You are right. I was wrong, and you were correct, and established the methodology of triangulation, making bad news the starting point of discussions. Upon seeing a dirty workbench, he instructed, Dirty machines tell lies; start by cleaning the floor.Sharing Risks: ASML and Carl ZeissThe true value of transparency emerges in times of crisis. In the late 1980s, when a semiconductor recession forced parent company Philips to restructure, ASML, which was spending on research and development without generating revenue, was first in line for liquidation. Board member Henk Boet read the situation beyond the financial statements, persuading stakeholders that if this investment failed, the entire European equipment ecosystem would collapse, leading to a loss of technological sovereignty. He secured a bailout of 30 million guilders.When the main factory burned down in 1990, management chose to share photos of the charred factory and a recovery roadmap with global clients instead of controlling the media, resulting in no order cancellations.In 2012, during the development of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment, ASML approached competitors Intel, TSMC, and Samsung, admitting its limitations and funding shortages, proposing to share development costs in exchange for equity. The three companies purchased 23% for €3.85 billion and provided €1.38 billion in support over five years, allowing ASML to maintain control while integrating competitors into its roadmap.The principles of the supply chain also emerged from this experience. While over 100,000 precision parts are included in the latest equipment, ASML manufactures only 15% directly. Since 1983, ASML has maintained a relationship with German supplier Carl Zeiss based on mutual respect for scientific integrity, without a mandatory contract. When optical errors occurred, Zeiss admitted that the cause lay in its internal lens polishing process. In 2016, as Zeiss faced increased management risks, ASML opted to buy 24.9% of its shares for €1 billion instead of cutting prices, providing an additional €760 million in support. The result was ultra-precise mirrors with a difference of only 0.1 millimeters between mountains and valleys when scaled to the size of the Earth. The seed of lithography equipment that China cannot surpass began with the absolute honesty and transparency left by the Philips founders in 1891.TSMC: A Company That Acknowledges Its MistakesTSMC, which holds over 70% of the advanced foundry market, operates on similar principles. Morris Chang learned the value of standing alone before truth at Harvard, studied physical laws at MIT and Stanford, and gained experience in statistical process control at Texas Instruments for 25 years. When he founded the company in 1987, he eliminated the opacity typical of Asian companies, such as backdoor deals and nepotism, and the international accounting standards and board governance required by early major investor Philips served as a shield against local favoritism.Honesty transcends morality to become the algorithm of business at TSMC. The clearest test came during the 2009 40-nanometer process crisis. A process defect caused significant losses for key client NVIDIA, but the existing management refused compensation. Morris Chang, who had retired, returned to transparently acknowledge the technical fault, flew to Silicon Valley, admitted, We were wrong, and offered over $100 million in damages, reaching a settlement within two days.In the early 2000s, when fine processes hit the 193-nanometer wall, Nikon and Canon were focused on dry technology to reduce wavelengths. When TSMCs research team proposed immersion lithography, Intel and Japanese companies dismissed it as unscientific, while only ASML paid attention to the data. TSMC openly shared real-time manufacturing data and defect information, forming a team that broke down confidentiality barriers and pushed Japanese companies out of the high-end market.The core of the Nightingale project, which secured the 10-nanometer and 7-nanometer processes, was not labor time but data trust. Under the principle of not competing with customers, TSMC serves as a neutral party through its open innovation platform (OIP) and chiplet standards, allowing partners to combine core assets without fear of technology leakage. Samsung has belatedly established a similar platform, but customers are reluctant to share design secrets with Samsung, a competitor in finished products like smartphones, limiting customer expansion.For TSMC, European regulations have transformed into industrial power that eliminates competitors. By joining the 100% renewable energy initiative, TSMC has committed to purchasing all offshore wind power at a fixed price for 20 years, thereby eliminating financial risks for Denmarks Ørsted project. The question posed to South Korean manufacturing is clear: the hierarchical culture of top-down command and the closed nature that conceals bad news are the most lethal poisons for sustainable transparency.NVIDIA: The Strongest Capital in WeaknessIn 1996, NVIDIA was at a crossroads just before bankruptcy. During development, it realized that its first products architecture diverged from the market standard set by Microsoft’s DirectX, and the companys funds were running low. Jensen Huang approached the representative of its contractor, Sega, confessed that their architecture was wrong, and requested to terminate the contract while asking to keep the $5 million development fee as an investment. Sega agreed to this honesty, and with that money, a new chip was developed, leading to success. This transparent acknowledgment of defects became the ultimate survival strategy, embedding the legacy that transparency is the strongest capital.This principle transcends individual virtue to become NVIDIAs management structure. The principle of setting goals not against competitors but in the shortest time possible based on physical laws, reducing middle management so that over 60 executives directly interact with the CEO, prohibiting secretive reporting, and conducting all discussions in public are all part of this approach. In an industry where changing companies every few years is the norm, the reason core architects stay for over 20 years cannot be explained by compensation alone.Technological transitions follow the same logic. NVIDIA created a separate CUDA platform for chips originally used only for game graphics, anticipating future markets, even as Wall Street derided it as a waste. Eventually, its market capitalization plummeted from $12 billion to $2 billion. However, when Professor Geoffrey Hintons team utilized two of the companys graphics cards (GPUs) to open the door to deep learning, NVIDIA pivoted from its past cash cow to become an AI company.The Era of Carbon and Human Rights as Toll FeesEurope has created the Brussels Effect, leveraging access to its single market of 450 million people to demand environmental and human rights regulations from global companies. This is the so-called normative power of Europe. The current order requires proof of carbon and human rights embedded in the entire product lifecycle through transparent digital data to enter the market. Under the principle of double materiality, which mandates climate risks to be disclosed in monetary terms and probabilities, previously invisible environmental risks have been elevated to financial variables that determine procurement rates and stock prices. Double materiality means reflecting both the impact of companies on the environment and the impact of the environment on companies in financial statements.The practical cost bill is already in effect with the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). Carbon-intensive products entering Europe must submit certificates corresponding to their embedded carbon emissions, and immediate impacts are anticipated for South Koreas steel and chemical industries, which have a high export share to Europe. South Korea argues that it also implements an emissions trading system and requests special treatment, but this does not hold against the carbon price gap between the two markets. The first implementation of the Digital Product Passport (DPP), which records the carbon history of products, targets batteries. It mandates the digital submission of information throughout the entire lifecycle, from raw material extraction to recycling, and if any data is missing or suspected of being falsified, sales are completely blocked without exception.In response to this wave, the approaches of China, Japan, and South Korea diverge. Japan, led by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, is synchronizing its national system with European standards, completing the worlds first interoperability demonstration by March 2025 through the Uranus project. China, controlling the battery supply chain, has smooth data access, and its subsidiary of Geely, Volvo, has already equipped its batteries with a passport in collaboration with the UK carbon certification software company Circular. Moreover, it is early commercializing hydrogen reduction steelmaking facilities to bring carbon emissions close to zero, effectively nullifying the regulations. South Korea has missed the golden opportunity to establish a national representative platform, leaving small and medium-sized enterprises without capital and IT infrastructure in a data blackout zone. However, while Europe has the capacity to design norms, it lacks the precise mass production infrastructure for commercialization. Additionally, the U.S. struggles to match manufacturing costs due to labor expenses, so proactively establishing a transparency system could present a significant opportunity for South Korea. The moment it seizes the ability to convert opaque process data into trustworthy data for the West, the path from being a norm-dependent country to a norm creator opens up. It is urgent to unify fragmented tasks across ministries such as the Ministry of Climate, Industry, and SMEs to establish a control tower for trade and ESG.Empires Built on SandChina accounts for over 30% of global manufacturing value-added, with CATL and BYD commanding 60-80% of global market share in solar, batteries, and electric vehicles. It has recorded the worlds number one research achievements in 66 out of 74 key technology areas and posted the largest trade surplus in history in 2025. In contrast, the U.S. recorded the largest trade deficit in history for the same amount. While the U.S. has tilted towards a litigious culture, China views the state as a single machine. Unable to win on straight roads, it has shifted its value chain from engines to batteries, becoming the worlds largest electric vehicle empire.One area where Chinas opacity is particularly noted is in circumventing rules through subsidies. Direct subsidies alone account for 1.73% of GDP, and when combined with tax, land, and credit benefits, the figure rises to 4.4%. The problem is that this ecosystem is extremely opaque. Government-led funds disguised as private equity funds proliferate, and a $100 billion semiconductor fund created in the third round focuses on overcoming choke points in advanced lithography equipment and design software controlled by the West. Under a structure where state finances can absorb failures indefinitely, companies produce at virtually negative marginal costs, collapsing the global price mechanism.This accumulated opacity has been exposed on the global stage. The Communist Party effectively controls state-owned enterprises while claiming they operate according to commercial logic, circumventing WTO subsidy sanctions. The monopolistic position in the global supply chain has been weaponized to punish countries that offend political sensibilities. However, the very conditions for success are flawed.Without an independent judiciary and market transparency, as seen when Apple refused law enforcements demands for backdoors, state power can disintegrate entrepreneurs overnight. Such opacity limits the emergence of universally innovative companies. In a closed system where surveillance cameras and anti-espionage laws control every move, imitation may be maximized, but paradigm-shifting innovation cannot thrive.South Korea must not imitate this volume offensive or control method. In envisioning the path for the next century, the best approach is to establish institutional transparency that ends the cycle of policy reversals with each regime change, to hold the physical choke points that drive both Chinas AI ecosystem and the U.S. big tech infrastructure, and to position itself as a trusted partner that merges advanced manufacturing with absolute transparency.The U.S. is No Longer ItselfSince World War II, the U.S. has stood at the center of the international order, encompassing technology, norms, and institutions. However, it is now shaking the very rules-based order it designed. Unilateral and opaque policies have followed, and the predictability once trusted by the world has vanished. Hegemony is not maintained solely by military power; the opposing country must be able to trust in the continuity of promises for rules and alliances to hold strength.The shift in technological indicators is clear. Chinese universities occupy a significant portion of the top ranks in evaluations that measure the output and citation of top papers, and a reversal has been allowed in the total competition of basic science. The Leiden ranking and Nature Index are examples of this. However, to conclude that this signifies a collapse of U.S. innovative capacity is superficial. In fields like quantum computing, which require high levels of foundational knowledge and solidarity among multiple allies, the U.S.-led West still holds the lead.The structural difference lies in how talent is organized. The U.S. is a society where the most talented individuals gravitate towards abstract rule-based sectors like law, finance, and consulting, excelling in creating from nothing but treating manufacturing as low-value subcontracting, losing the tacit knowledge and process know-how required for precise mass production. In contrast, China prioritizes a real economic system where technocrats from engineering backgrounds are positioned in local administration, emphasizing the process of making and then fixing on-site.Opacity is even more pronounced in foreign policy. Decisions to withdraw from climate agreements, halt support for over 60 international organizations, and paralyze the WTOs final adjudicatory body have followed. While the U.S. imposes universal tariffs of up to 50% on the poorest African countries, China has implemented zero tariffs on all exports to the 53 African countries it has diplomatic relations with.Yet, the U.S. advantage has not disappeared. It still dominates the flow of dominant rules, the software that operates them, and venture capital. In this chaos, South Koreas strategy should not be a choice to side with one party but to increase its autonomy. This involves establishing irreplaceability by tying itself to the center of the global value chain, managing a two-track supply chain that distinguishes between advanced security value chains and general value chains, and promoting multilateralism among middle powers.Trusting 10% Equals 1% GrowthFrancis Fukuyama has defined that an opaque society where trust in others is absent incurs significant transaction costs in legal reviews, contract enforcement, and bribery, akin to a tax on economic activity. Nex and Keeper analyzed 29 market economy countries and found that for every 10 percentage points increase in social trust, the annual per capita GDP growth rate rises by 0.8 to 1 percentage points. The World Economic Forum estimates that corruption increases business execution costs by an average of over 10%.In the Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International, Denmark scores 89, Finland 88, Norway 81, and Sweden 80, maintaining the top ranks, while South Korea scores 63, placing it 31st. This gap may be a source of moral pride but manifests as a difference in economic performance. In 1766, the Swedish parliament enacted a freedom of the press law that opened public documents to citizens and abolished prior censorship, which later evolved into the worlds first ombudsman system. The egalitarian norm of not considering oneself special, known as Jantes Law, has made self-serving behavior a social taboo, and the decision to establish a sovereign wealth fund that publicly discloses its investment portfolio is based on the same principle.The internal workings of companies reflect the same grammar. Researchers at Novo Nordisk, which developed an obesity treatment, shook their heads when asked if they received monetary rewards. They transparently attributed their intellectual property to the company, supported by a structural trust that the profits would be reinvested into life sciences research through a public foundation. Motivation is not an individual virtue but a product of the system.The value of this trust is evident in crisis response. When Nokia collapsed, leaving 18,000 people unemployed worldwide, it did not abandon this human resource. It opened its technology patents for former employees to use at low cost and activated unemployment insurance that maintained the previous salary level for up to two years for founders. As a result, over 60% of participants successfully reemployed, leading to the birth of over 1,000 new startups.A Country That Replaced TerritoryBetween the great powers of Russia and Germany, Estonia has weaponized its digital platform to become a rule-setter for global cybersecurity standards. After Russias full-scale invasion, when Ukraines banking system and logistics network collapsed, software developers who took refuge in underground bunkers continued their operations using Estonias e-citizenship system. With just laptops and smartphones, they accessed the Estonian e-citizenship platform to establish EU entities and receive overseas payments while paying their colleagues wages. The core infrastructure of Ukraines e-government app was built on this countrys decentralized data exchange platform.The starting point was desperation. When it gained independence, its finances were in bankruptcy. When the Finnish government offered to donate analog telephone exchanges, the country refused and opted for the internet instead, believing that computers could equalize a capital-deficient nation with developed countries. What hindered innovation was not technology but departmental self-interest and data monopolization. However, the government legally dismantled departmental self-interest. Government agencies that require citizens to submit the same documents twice have no reason to exist, and this principle was enforced by law, creating a decentralized structure without a central server.Transparency was validated in crisis. When a large-scale distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, presumed to be from Russia, halted national functions, professors, engineers, and white-hat hackers, who had previously been critical of the government, voluntarily gathered to defend it. This solidarity was institutionalized as a public-private joint cyber reserve force. Cumulatively, 140,000 e-citizens from 185 countries have established over 40,000 EU entities, with one program contributing €12.5 million to the national treasury in a year. These individuals operate as diplomatic allies that shape public opinion in their countries during crises, becoming assets for national existence and defense.Today, the Baltic states have secured monopolistic core technologies that the world cannot do without, rather than submitting to great powers. This includes Lithuanias lasers, Latvias drones, and Estonias digital administration and security platforms. Latvia has emerged as a hub for military drones and tactical network technology, while Lithuania has monopolized scientific and industrial laser technology, establishing an indispensable position in global semiconductor equipment production. Estonia supports or exports its well-established digital administrative system to over 100 countries and has positioned itself as a cybersecurity command center or hub for the EU and NATO. Small countries endure not through territory but through irreplaceable choke points.A Foundation That Protects a CenturyDenmarks transparency and trust capital are not products of short-term systems. After losing its fleet in a war with Britain and declaring national bankruptcy, it suffered defeat in the Second Schleswig War in 1864, losing one-third of its territory and 40% of its population. Enrico Dalgas, a civil engineer, dedicated his life to reclaiming the barren lands of Jutland.Internalized transparency has transitioned into the business ecosystem, giving rise to the model of existential industry. In a top-down controlled economy, the inability to acknowledge strategic failures due to the face-saving of vested interests and the inability to stop due to sunk costs leads to stagnation. In contrast, companies with secured transparency can face their internal limitations without concealment, allowing them to shed vested interests and start anew at any time. In crisis, Bang & Olufsen shed the inertia of past successes to pioneer a mobile portable ecosystem, while Ørsted (formerly Dong Energy), which accounted for one-third of national carbon emissions, publicly disclosed data linking the risks of fossil fuel core business collapse to climate change, selling off licenses for oil and gas that generated the vast majority of its existing profits to transform into the worlds leading offshore wind power company.All of this is supported by a structure that has sustained itself for over a century. To protect its research philosophy from the pressures of founder families seeking personal gain or activist funds, a public-interest foundation holds the absolute majority of voting shares. Even in crisis, LEGO has minimized destructive conflicts by publicly sharing the realities of internal laxity and reducing the number of component types by nearly half, transparently communicating the substance and accountability of the crisis.In the renewable energy sector, the same principle eliminates social conflict costs. In 2025, while China shook the global landscape by exceeding 100 gigawatts of new installations in the global wind market, Vestas maintained its position as the market leader outside China. Germany, which initially experienced failures by promoting top-down wind development, faced setbacks with its 3-megawatt Grobian turbine, which became scrap metal after just 420 hours of operation due to ignoring on-site trial and error.Evidence Already Within UsSouth Korea has emerged as a nation that has escaped an oppressive growth system to achieve the values of liberal democracy. During a time when pessimism dominated academia regarding the end of the DRAM era due to the physical limits of fine processes, a researcher focused on silicon penetrating electrodes and 3D packaging research, accumulating failures such as the phenomenon of packages bending at high temperatures with students for over 15 years.This is the story of Professor Kim Jeong-ho from KAIST. That research transformed SK Hynix into a nation of high-bandwidth memory. While the global robotics community poured budgets into bipedal humanoids, a researcher found answers in the movements of animals optimized over millions of years. A robot that walks and runs by judging terrain 20 times per second using only tactile sensors on its toes can perform its mission even in darkness or when sensors are destroyed.This also applies to Dr. Kim Sang-bae from MIT, who created a stable ion trap method at room temperature, unlike large companies that insisted on superconducting methods, and to IonQs CEO Kim Jeong-sang, who became the first to list a company on the New York Stock Exchange. Additionally, Woo Seong-hoon, CEO of the U.S. startup Amogee, is attracting global investment with innovative ammonia cracking technology for hydrogen storage and utilization while collaborating with Korean companies.Noteworthy is Yuhan Corporation, which, on its 100th anniversary, became the first in South Koreas history of anticancer drugs to receive U.S. approval. The driving force behind the research teams ability to endure over 150 billion won in costs during three years of Phase III clinical trials lies in its governance structure. The largest shareholder is a public-interest foundation, blocking pressures for personal gain from the owner family or hedge funds demanding short-term dividends, enabling the investment of 1.7 trillion won in research and development budgets over the past decade. The profits from new drugs flow into the foundations dividends, creating a virtuous cycle that returns to scholarships and welfare, representing the Korean version of the Danish existential industry model.History also showcases South Koreas potential for transparency. The sincerity of Father Lee Tae-seok, who touched the wounds of leprosy patients in Tonj, South Sudan, with his bare hands, has not faded even after his death. In 1597, during the Battle of Myeongnyang, Admiral Yi Sun-sin led the Joseon navy of 13 ships against over 330 Japanese vessels, promising neither reinforcements nor miracles, but instead confessing and sharing the absolute reality of death with all members, leading to victory. The legacy of King Sejong, who allowed every citizen to express their inner thoughts through the creation of Hangul, is part of the same lineage.The First Step of a Century of InnovationChinas five-year plans and vertical capitalism drive short-term growth through volume input. However, when crises arise, the lack of resilience to shed vested interests and the philosophical foundation to draw out the sincerity of members is evident. The lesson remains that countries lacking resources, territory, and population have overturned their power deficits with one invisible resource.Transparency is not a technical device that can be internalized overnight by overhauling systems, nor is it completed through severe punishment to prevent corruption or sophisticated technological surveillance networks. It is fundamentally a matter of spirit and philosophy. The two axes are clear. One is external transparency that proves carbon and human rights, demanded by the global economy led by Europe, which serves as a toll fee for market entry. The other is internal transparency, which internalizes the Philips motto from 1891, No dishonest money should be earned, into our corporate culture and the conscience of our members, posing the question of how we will survive. The fact that the lithography equipment that China cannot surpass began with absolute honesty and transparency underscores what is fundamentally important.South Korean industry stands at a critical juncture where even its last competitive advantages are shaking. It must break free from the old inertia of hiding in closed rooms out of fear of survival and establish a psychological safety net that shares assets without punishing failures. This is not merely a slogan but a strategy. In the long term, it is an economic weapon that lowers social transaction costs and maximizes voluntary engagement from members to create added value.While visible volume cannot defeat China, the power of invisible transparency can lead the world. Transparency is the most solid foundation for South Korean industry to endure existentially for the next century. The first step of a century of innovation begins with a single sentence acknowledging ones mistakes, just as it did in ASMLs conference room.Authors Key Background- Department of German Language, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies- Director of KOTRAs Munich and Hamburg Trade Offices, Global Training Center Director- Head of the International Human Resources Division, Korea Industrial Human Resources Corporation- Visiting Professor, National Suncheon University, Department of Trade- Guest Professor, Sookmyung Womens University, Business Administration (2026-present)(Publications)- Beautiful Innovation, I Flew with Volkswagen (Translation), Intercultural Communication with Koreans (Co-authored), The Secret to China’s Industrial Rise (Amazon) September 27, 2026
  • Finding Solutions for Youth Employment in the AI Era
    Finding Solutions for Youth Employment in the AI Era As artificial intelligence (AI) transforms the job market and career development for young people, the government, businesses, and social enterprises are seeking solutions to expand job opportunities through work experience and entrepreneurship.The Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry co-hosted the Youth Employment Forum in the AI Era on September 22 at COEX in Seoul. This forum is part of the 3rd Korea Social Value Festa, which runs from September 21 to 22 at COEX.The forum featured two sessions: the first focused on diagnosing youth employment issues in the AI era and examining the roles of government and businesses, while the second explored new job possibilities through work experience and entrepreneurship in social enterprises.In the first session, Jang Ji-yeon, a senior researcher at the Korea Labor Institute, presented on the current status and challenges of youth employment in the AI era. Kim Min-hwan, vice president of SK AX, shared examples of corporate initiatives aimed at addressing youth employment issues, and Lee Sang-bok, head of the Human Resource Development Division at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, discussed the current status and plans for supporting youth employment from business associations in the AI era.The session was moderated by Jeong Heung-jun, a professor at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, and included discussions with Lee Young-min, a professor at Sookmyung Womens University; Kim Bom-i, head of the Youth Center at the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training; and Jeong Hyung-woo, CEO of Cognizant Korea, on collaborative strategies to support young peoples smooth entry into the labor market and ongoing career development.The second session focused on solving youth employment issues through work experience and entrepreneurship in social enterprises. Lee Jae-heung, a member of the National AI Strategy Committee, proposed new job creation possibilities by linking social solidarity economy with AI transformation (AX). Kim Jeong-tae, CEO of MYSC, suggested the need for a new system to measure and trade the social outcomes generated by youth employment.Representatives from social enterprise support organizations, including Sinnaen Cooperative and Imagination Our, which supports youth work experience, as well as Outfit Code, a company participating in entrepreneurship support projects, shared on-site examples and proposed improvements to existing systems.Lim Young-mi, head of the Employment Policy Office at the Ministry of Labor, stated, We must work together to ensure that the changes brought by the AI era become opportunities for challenge and growth rather than vague anxiety for young people. She added, The government will actively support the expansion of work experience and entrepreneurship opportunities for youth, providing comprehensive assistance from job preparation to labor market entry and career development, allowing them to fully realize their potential.* This article has been translated by AI. September 22, 2026
  • Sookmyung professor wins PSE-Bruker Award, first outside Europe
    Sookmyung professor wins PSE-Bruker Award, first outside Europe SEOUL, September 22 (AJP) - The Phytochemical Society of Europe gave its PSE-Bruker Award to a scientist based outside Europe for the first time this month, choosing a pharmacy researcher at Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul, the university said Thursday. Kang Kyo-bin, a professor in the university's Division of Pharmacy, received the award on Sept. 15 at the society's regular conference in Caserta, Italy, which ran through Sept. 18. Sponsored by Bruker, a global maker of analytical instruments, the award goes to senior scientists who have advanced natural products research through new methods, especially those using mass spectrometry. The technique identifies chemical compounds by measuring the mass of their molecules. The Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE) was founded in Cambridge, England, in 1957 and brings together European researchers who study the compounds plants produce. These natural products have long served as a starting point for new medicines. Kang used his lecture at the PSE conference to present an approach that applies mass spectrometry to the functional metabolomics of natural products, a field that maps the small molecules inside living things and works out what each one does. He credited "the students and researchers who have worked hard with me, and our collaborators at home and abroad." "I will continue to contribute to research that lays the groundwork for discovering and using the diverse compounds nature has created throughout its evolutionary history," Kang said. September 22, 2026
  • Korea University and Ban Ki-moon Foundation to Host Peace Symposium on September 29
    Korea University and Ban Ki-moon Foundation to Host Peace Symposium on September 29 Korea Universitys Unification and Convergence Research Institute announced on September 18 that it will hold the 4th joint symposium with the Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future on September 29 at 2 p.m. at the Korea University Centennial Memorial Hall. The symposium, titled Order After Order: Restructuring International Security and Peace on the Korean Peninsula, is organized with support from Korea Universitys Leading University Project for Unification. It aims to explore the conditions for peace on the Korean Peninsula amid a rapidly changing international security landscape. The opening ceremony will begin with a welcome address from Korea University President Kim Dong-won, followed by a keynote speech from Ban Ki-moon, the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations. The event will consist of two sessions. The first session will address The Chain Reaction of Geopolitical Conflicts and Peace on the Korean Peninsula. Kim Sook, Executive Director of the Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future and former UN Ambassador, will moderate the session. Presentations will include: △ Complexity of Middle Eastern Conflicts and the Restructuring of International Order by In Nam-sik, Director of the Strategic Area Studies Department at the National Diplomatic Academy; and △ International Order of Chain Crises and Conditions for Peace on the Korean Peninsula by Park Young-jun, Director of the National Security Research Institute at the National Defense University. Following the presentations, Lee Suk-jong, a special professor at Sungkyunkwan University, Kim Dong-jung, a professor at Korea Universitys Graduate School of International Studies, and Lim Jae-cheon, head of the Leading University Project for Unification at Korea University, will participate in a discussion to explore the impact of crises originating in the Middle East on peace on the Korean Peninsula. The second session will focus on Restructuring Global Governance in the Era of Technological Hegemony and Koreas Strategy. Lee Shin-hwa, head of the Unification and Convergence Research Institute, will moderate this session. Presentations will include: △ AI Technological Hegemony and Security Defense Lines: Koreas Supply Chain Sovereignty Strategy by Kwon Tae-kyung, a professor at Yonsei Universitys Graduate School of Information; and △ Restructuring of Technology, Norms, and Institutions and Koreas Strategic Choices by Kim Sang-bae, a professor at Seoul National University and president of the International Political Science Association. Discussion participants will include Nam Seung-wook, a distinguished professor at Sookmyung Womens University, Lim Jong-in, a senior advisor at Kim & Chang (former cyber advisor to the president and emeritus professor at Korea University), and Jang Sang-sik, head of the International Trade and Commerce Research Institute, who will delve into Koreas strategic responses amid technological hegemony competition. The two institutions have been holding annual joint academic symposiums since the first one in 2023 (focused on the Korea-U.S. alliance), the second in 2024 (on the North Korean nuclear crisis), and the third in 2025 (on the Trump 2.0 era). This event aims to present national strategic benchmarks in response to the restructuring of the international security order. September 18, 2026
  • Research Impact Over Quantity Highlighted at 17th Korean University Ranking Forum
    Research Impact Over Quantity Highlighted at 17th Korean University Ranking Forum A new paradigm for global university evaluation has emerged, emphasizing the actual impact of research, international collaboration, and social value, moving beyond mere publication counts and quantitative metrics. Amid the transformative AI revolution, leaders from top global university ranking organizations and domestic higher education experts convened to explore solutions for enhancing the global competitiveness and reputation of South Korean universities.Sookmyung Womens University announced that it hosted the 17th University Ranking Forum of Korea (URFK) on September 17 at the Han Sang-eun Lounge in the Centennial Memorial Hall in Yongsan, Seoul. Organized by the Korean University Ranking Forum and hosted by Sookmyung Womens University, the event was supported by Busan University of Foreign Studies, Clarivate, and Elsevier, attracting over 130 participants, including university presidents, planning directors, evaluation practitioners, and scholars from Korea and abroad.Founded in 2014, the Korean University Ranking Forum is a prominent expert group that assesses the objectivity and rationality of global university evaluations and develops response strategies for domestic universities amid a rapidly changing higher education landscape.This years forum was themed Better Universities, Better Futures. As global university evaluations shift from a focus on publication counts to a broader consideration of research quality, societal impact, industry-academia collaboration, reputation, and community contributions, the forum addressed the need for substantial improvements and innovative strategies within domestic universities.Representatives from the three leading global university ranking organizations (THE, QS, Shanghai Ranking), as well as officials from Elsevier and Springer Nature, gathered for the event.The morning session began with a welcome address from Sookmyung Womens University President Moon Si-yeon, followed by a presentation by Planning Director Park Kyung-tae on Proud Sookmyung, Beyond 120 – SMWU’s 120 Year-Long Endeavor, outlining the universitys vision as it approaches its 120th anniversary. This was followed by congratulatory remarks from Ajou University President Choi Gi-joo and a keynote speech by former Seoul National University President Oh Se-jung.International scholars also delivered engaging presentations. Anders Karlsson, Vice President of Elsevier, discussed how universities contributions to their communities create a virtuous cycle leading to global competitiveness. Phil Baty, Vice President of THE, and Leigh Kamolins, Vice President of QS, highlighted the latest trends and changes in university evaluations in the AI era, capturing the audiences attention.In the afternoon, practical sessions focused on Global Competence and Research Evaluation and Ranking Indicators and University Innovation. Participants explored effective ways to promote South Korean universities outstanding research achievements, the use of research data analysis tools, and the evolving methodologies of university evaluations.The final session featured Busan University of Foreign Studies Director of University Performance Analysis, Koo Kyung-mo, who presented strategies for enhancing the global competitiveness of specialized universities focused on humanities and languages, proposing ways to ensure diversity.Park Kyung-tae, Planning Director of Sookmyung Womens University, stated, Global university evaluations are evolving to comprehensively assess various achievements of universities, including research outcomes, international reputation, research impact, and social value. He expressed hope that the forum would serve as a catalyst for practical innovations and strategies to enhance global competitiveness among universities.* This article has been translated by AI. September 17, 2026
  • International Oil Prices Surpass $100, Pressuring Food Industry Costs
    International Oil Prices Surpass $100, Pressuring Food Industry Costs International oil prices have once again surpassed $100 per barrel, intensifying cost pressures on the domestic food industry, which had already been grappling with high inflation and exchange rates in the first half of the year. While the recent decline in the won-dollar exchange rate has eased some burden on imported raw materials, the ongoing high oil prices are raising logistics, packaging, and energy costs for factory operations, becoming a significant factor for profitability in the second half of the year.According to the Korea National Oil Corporation, the spot price of Dubai crude rose by $0.30 to $128.00 per barrel on September 16. Brent crude futures closed at $105.83 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) finished at $102.43 per barrel. Although these prices fell by $2.92 (2.69%) and $3.40 (3.21%) respectively from the previous trading day, they remain at elevated levels. International oil prices have exceeded the $100 mark for the first time in four months since May.The rise in oil prices is particularly concerning as it leads to increased costs across food manufacturing and distribution. The logistics sector is the first to feel the impact, as shipping costs for importing raw materials like grains are compounded by fuel surcharges. Additionally, domestic costs for operating refrigerated and frozen transport vehicles and freight services are also rising.Pressure on packaging material costs is also mounting. The price of naphtha, a key raw material for PET bottles, vinyl, and plastic containers, soared to $1,063.10 per ton in April, dropped to an average of $708.40 per ton in June, but has since climbed back to the $800 range this month. The increase in naphtha prices directly raises the cost of auxiliary materials. Furthermore, production facilities are closely monitoring the potential rise in energy costs, including gas and electricity, necessary for factory operations.Major food companies typically secure advance contracts and stockpiles of raw materials for three to six months to absorb short-term shocks. However, they express concerns about the sustainability of this approach if high oil prices persist. A representative from the food industry stated, If the trend of high oil prices continues, the increase in production costs will inevitably begin once existing stockpiles are depleted.The food industry has already raised the prices of key products earlier this year due to cost pressures. CJ CheilJedang increased the prices of 27 major items, including cooked rice and dumplings, by an average of 8%. Nongshim raised the prices of its cup noodles and other key products by an average of 5.8%. Ottogi adjusted the prices of some products, including instant rice and convenience meals, by as much as 29.4%. Lotte Chilsung Beverage also raised the prices of 44 items across 12 brands, including Chilsung Cider, Pepsi Cola, and Milkis, by an average of 5.3% in June.Seong Yong-gu, a professor of business administration at Sookmyung Womens University, noted, The food industry has accumulated pressures from high exchange rates and rising raw material prices, but has not been able to fully reflect these in prices due to government price management. If international oil prices remain above $100, it could trigger further price increases. September 17, 2026
  • Four Ministries Collaborate on Youth Policies in Military, Employment, and Housing
    Four Ministries Collaborate on Youth Policies in Military, Employment, and Housing The Youth Advisory Groups from the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family joined forces to discuss youth policy development on Youth Day.According to the Ministry of Justice, the four ministries held a 2030 Youth Advisory Group Policy Exchange Seminar on September 14 at a café near Sookmyung Womens University in Yongsan, Seoul, to address the complex issues facing the youth generation and seek solutions.The seminar aimed to take an integrated approach to the various challenges young people face in areas such as military service, employment, housing, and asset formation. Approximately 60 participants, including youth advisors and officials from the relevant ministries, engaged in in-depth discussions.The seminar began with each ministry sharing its key youth policies to enhance inter-policy connectivity. The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission then presented an analysis of over 410,000 youth complaints received through the National Complaint Center over the past year, categorized into five areas: military service, employment, asset formation, housing, and childbirth and childcare, conveying the real concerns and needs of young people.During the subsequent group discussions, youth advisors from the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy contributed to generating diverse ideas. The organizing ministries plan to carefully review the policy proposals drafted during the event for potential incorporation into future youth policies.Youth advisors attending the event stated, The difficulties faced by young people cannot be resolved through a fragmented approach. We will continue to break down departmental barriers and maintain ongoing communication to gather the voices of youth.* This article has been translated by AI. September 15, 2026
  • AI time-out calls grow just as Korea readies AI jolt
    AI time-out calls grow just as Korea readies AI jolt SEOUL, September 14 (AJP) - After years of acceleration and frenzied infatuation with generative artificial intelligence, U.S. creators and users are suddenly shouting time-out, with debate spreading among incumbent and former presidents, Silicon Valley and beyond over warnings of a Frankenstein moment and even doomsday for humanity. The sober reckoning, raised most dramatically by former OpenAI and Anthropic researchers, has arrived just as the latest generation of models pushes closer to artificial general intelligence, or AGI. Even the people running the race are beginning to question its speed. Anthropic Chief Executive Dario Amodei, after years of competing fiercely with OpenAI and other frontier laboratories, called for greater restraint. "Over the last few months, I have become convinced that fully addressing the risks requires even more prudence—not just investing in risk prevention, but pacing the rate of capabilities advancement so that risk prevention has time to keep up," Amodei wrote Saturday. OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman quickly backed stronger independent evaluation. Elon Musk of xAI responded, "Dario is right," while Google DeepMind Chief Executive Demis Hassabis also lent his support. Their convergence is striking because all four are competing to build increasingly powerful AI. U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration has put beating China at the center of its AI strategy, was clearly unhappy with the interruption. Trump said the United States was leading China and that "whoever wins AI wins." "We can put guardrails, we can do this and that, but I think you have a lot of negative forces that are bringing it up that ... shouldn't be bringing it up, and they're bringing up things that won't happen," Trump told reporters Sunday during a weekend trip to Ireland. Former President Barack Obama took almost the opposite position at a closed-door Democratic fundraiser in New York on Sept. 10. The technology is "moving very fast in private hands," he said, and could become dangerous if it is not brought under control. For South Korea, however, the argument is no philosophical exercise. Seoul is only now preparing its biggest push into AI after starting late against the United States and China. Slowing down could widen that gap. Racing ahead without stronger safeguards could leave Korea repeating mistakes that the companies at the technological frontier are only beginning to confront. South Korea's 2027 budget bill raises spending on AI and three related flagship industrial projects by 97.2 percent to 21.3 trillion won ($15.8 billion). The National AI Computing Center planned for Solasido is targeting 15,000 GPUs by 2028, while Nvidia agreed late last year to supply 260,000 GPUs to Korean buyers. Korea, in other words, is preparing to sprint at precisely the moment some of the world's fastest runners are asking whether the race itself has become dangerous. Trump's reaction nevertheless exposes the other half of Seoul's dilemma. Countries already running behind can hardly afford a breather, much less a moral reconsideration, if their competitors keep moving. China has continued rolling out increasingly capable models, while Washington increasingly treats AI leadership as a matter of economic and national security. "The government should hold its own center of gravity and not be rattled by a single remark from Trump," said Moon Hyoung-nam, professor of interdisciplinary studies at Sookmyung Women's University. "The United States has spent 2026 institutionalizing this, down to fast-tracking AI for national security and locking in AI talent," Moon said. "Korea needs to execute infrastructure, talent and industrial application at the same time, rather than issue declarations." AI debate in Korea has largely centered on catching up — computing capacity, sovereign models, data centers, talent and industrial adoption — rather than on what happens when increasingly autonomous systems become difficult to control. It has institutionalized risk management now being debated in Silicon Valley. The AI Basic Act, in force since Jan. 22, requires lifecycle risk management for systems meeting three conditions simultaneously, including cumulative training compute above 10^26 floating-point operations. No known domestic developer currently reaches that threshold. Korea has introduced rules for frontier-scale AI before producing much frontier-scale AI of its own, while massive public and private investment is rapidly expanding the computing infrastructure that could eventually bring Korean systems within reach of those rules. But the casualty has become visible in Korea's youth job market. Youth employment fell by 285,000 between June 2022 and June 2026, and industries with high exposure to AI accounted for 268,000, or 94 percent, of the decline, according to a Bank of Korea study released this month. Employment among young people fell 31.4 percent in information services, 27.4 percent in publishing, 16.6 percent in computer programming and 11.6 percent in professional services. The question is therefore not whether Korea should abandon its AI push. It is whether safety, cybersecurity and evaluation can be built into the expansion before Korea reaches the scale at which failures become harder and more expensive to contain and whether the country can absorb the labor-market disruption already emerging as AI begins to erode the entry-level jobs. Some Korean experts acknowledge the trade-off to some extent. "If you build AI at that kind of pace, the security gives way later," said Kong Duk-jo, professor of AI policy and strategy at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology. "It is like stretching chewed gum. Holes open up in the middle." The answer is not to cut investment, Kong said, but to change strategy. "Securing a general-purpose model is close to intractable, because it has to stay open to everyone," Kong said. "Korea could build enough AI usage cases through actual security attack and defense training, and we just might be able to stand on equal terms with the United States." Korea cannot realistically stop running while Washington and Beijing are still way ahead in the game. It also has little reason to reproduce an American development model whose own architects increasingly say has allowed capabilities to run ahead of safeguards. For Korea, the immediate danger is not necessarily Skynet. It is arriving late to the AI race and then running so hard to catch up that it ignores the warning signs being raised by those already ahead. Trump, asked whether the industry should slow down or face greater regulation, allowed that some rules might eventually be needed but named none. He answered after watching a golfer tee off. AJP Takeaways - South Korea is sharply accelerating its AI investment just as leading U.S. researchers and executives are warning that capability development may be outrunning safety and control. - The 2027 budget allocates 21.3 trillion won ($15.8 billion) to AI and three related flagship projects, while Korea is rapidly expanding computing capacity through the National AI Computing Center and large-scale GPU purchases. - Korea already has frontier-AI risk rules, but no known domestic developer currently meets the legal threshold, giving Seoul a window to strengthen security and evaluation before domestic systems reach much greater scale. - The Korean dilemma is not simply whether to slow down. Falling further behind the United States and China carries strategic costs, but racing ahead without stronger safeguards could import the same problems Silicon Valley is now confronting. September 14, 2026
  • Sookmyung team secures 1.16 billion won to build AI skills assessment
    Sookmyung team secures 1.16 billion won to build AI skills assessment SEOUL, September 11 (AJP) - A research team at Sookmyung Women's University will receive 1.16 billion won in government funding over the next four years to continue building artificial intelligence tools that assess students' skills, after advancing to the final stage of a national research program. The team cleared a stage review with high marks in the Social Science Korea program, which the National Research Foundation of Korea runs to support long-term social science research, the university said Thursday. The new funding covers the period from Sept. 1 this year to Aug. 31, 2030. First selected in September 2020, the team completed the program's first two stages over the following six years. Its project can run for up to 10 years under the program, and the third stage is the last. The team's goal is a system that uses AI to assess the core competencies students need for the future and to support their learning. According to the team's research plan, those assessments are based on how students actually behave and perform. Over the first two stages, the team published multiple papers in leading international social science journals, the university said. It also won best-paper awards from major Korean academic societies, including the Korean Educational Research Association, the Korean Society for the Study of Teacher Education and the Korean Society for the Gifted. The team also carried its research into practice, building an aptitude and character assessment system for aspiring teachers with Sookmyung's teacher training center. With a gifted education center at KAIST, it developed a system that uses AI to evaluate students' competencies. Led by Park, So-Young, a professor in the Department of Education who directs the Education Research Institute at Sookmyung Women's University, the team includes professor Lee, You-kyung at the Department of Education, Dong, Suh-yeon at the Department of AI Engineering, and professors from Kongju National University, KAIST, and the Educational Testing Service, the U.S. nonprofit that runs the TOEFL and GRE exams. By 2030, the team plans to build an AI-based learning system in which people and AI work together while learners stay in charge of their own learning and teachers' professional expertise is protected. It also plans to develop ethics guidelines for the use of AI in education. September 11, 2026
  • Common painkiller revives fading muscle protein in aging mice
    Common painkiller revives fading muscle protein in aging mice SEOUL, September 10 (AJP) - The arthritis painkiller meloxicam slowed muscle wasting in old mice by restoring a protein that muscles lose with age, researchers at two South Korean universities have found. Sarcopenia, the gradual loss of muscle mass and strength that comes with age, contributes to frailty, lost mobility, metabolic problems and higher death rates in older adults, the researchers wrote. The processes that drive it are still not fully understood, they added, which has held back the development of drugs that target it. Bae Gyu-un, a professor in Sookmyung Women's University's Division of Pharmacy, and Kang Jong-sun, a professor at Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, led the study, which was published online Aug. 12 in the journal Experimental & Molecular Medicine. The work focused on Cdon, a protein on the surface of muscle cells. Earlier research had shown that it helps muscle stem cells develop into mature muscle and keeps the connections between nerves and muscles stable, but its role in adult muscle and in aging had not been established. The team found that Cdon levels fall in aging human muscle, in people with sarcopenia and in patients with several muscle-wasting diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the nerve disease also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Across 891 human muscle samples from a public tissue database, lower Cdon went together with higher activity in genes linked to muscle breakdown and with smaller muscle fibers. Muscle cells from a 68-year-old donor carried far less of the protein than cells from a 17-year-old, and old mice showed a similar decline. Bae said in a statement released by Sookmyung Women's University on Monday that the team had confirmed the loss of Cdon as "a major indicator of muscle aging." To look for a way to bring Cdon back, the researchers engineered mouse muscle cells to give off light whenever the Cdon gene switched on. They then tested 2,485 drugs already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the screen singled out meloxicam as a potent activator of the gene. In lab dishes, the drug raised Cdon levels and helped both mouse and human muscle cells grow into larger fibers, including cells from the older donor. The benefit held only within a narrow range, as a dose 100 times higher than the most effective one began to kill cells. Young mice given the drug by mouth every day for two months built more leg muscle, gripped harder and ran farther than untreated mice. Their hearts, livers and kidneys showed no change in weight. The researchers then treated 16-month-old mice for 10 weeks. Untreated old mice kept losing weight over that period, while treated mice lost less and had slightly lower blood sugar. The treated older animals had stronger grips, and nerve signals reached their muscles faster. Their muscles were heavier, with thicker fibers and less scarring, and their livers stored less fat. The drug caused no signs of gut damage at the dose used. The researchers traced part of the muscle damage to cysteine, an amino acid that built up in the muscle and blood of old mice. Previously published data show the same rise in the blood of people with sarcopenia. When the team flooded muscle cells with cysteine, the cells produced less energy and more of the unstable oxygen molecules that damage tissue, a process known as oxidative stress. Meloxicam brought cysteine levels down in old mice and reduced that damage. Meloxicam switched on AMPK, an enzyme that serves as the cell's energy sensor, within five minutes of treatment. When the researchers blocked AMPK, most of the drug's boost to Cdon disappeared, and its protection of mitochondria, the structures that generate a cell's energy, was lost. The mice received 0.02 milligrams of meloxicam per kilogram of body weight each day. At that dose, the drug did not change muscle levels of prostaglandin E2, an inflammation signal that its painkilling action normally suppresses. The researchers said this made it unlikely that the muscle benefits came from the drug's usual painkilling effect. The paper discloses competing interests for Bae and Kang, which it says the two universities reviewed and approved under their conflict-of-interest policies. All of the animal experiments used male mice, and most measurements came from groups of seven or fewer animals. In human samples, the researchers showed an association between low Cdon and muscle decline rather than a direct cause. The authors wrote that they have not yet identified the molecule meloxicam acts on to switch on AMPK, and that the long-term effects and safety of chronic treatment still need study. Whether the same pathway can be restored in aging human muscle will require clinical evaluation, they wrote. [Reference Information] Journal/Source: Experimental & Molecular Medicine (IF 17.5, JCR top 2.65%) Title: Meloxicam protects against muscle and metabolic decline in ageing through Cdon restoration and oxidative stress modulation Link/DOI: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42587039/ September 10, 2026
  • Sookmyung professor wins 5-year grant for kidney disease study
    Sookmyung professor wins 5-year grant for kidney disease study SEOUL, September 08 (AJP) - A government program created this year to keep South Korea's most decorated scientists in the laboratory after they reach retirement age will pay for five years of kidney disease research at Sookmyung Women's University. The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the program on April 2 and picked 20 researchers nationwide with the National Research Foundation of Korea. Universities and state-funded institutes could nominate up to three candidates each. Eligibility extended to researchers aged 61 and over who had already retired or who would reach mandatory retirement within three years of the July 1 start date, including those without tenure. The ministry built the program around a problem it named plainly, that a researcher's most productive networks and expertise are cut off on a fixed date regardless of what that researcher is still capable of producing. Among the 20 is Park Jong-hoon, a research professor at Sookmyung's Research Institute of Women's Health. The award is worth up to 1.125 billion won, about $836,000 at 1,345 won to the dollar, over five years. Park spent 23 years teaching in the university's Division of Biological Sciences and retired in August 2024. He received the Innovation Medal of the Order of Science and Technology Merit in 2026, the second of the honor's five grades. The citation credited his basic research and his work on national strategic technology projects, along with his service to scientific societies and government committees. He led the Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as its president in 2022, an organization of more than 17,000 members. Sookmyung said he has published more than 100 papers, including articles in journals indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded. The funded work centers on polycystic kidney disease, an inherited disorder in which fluid-filled sacs multiply through both kidneys until they crowd out functioning tissue. Patients often live decades without symptoms before the damage forces them onto dialysis or a transplant list. There is no cure. Park plans to run secretome profiling on polycystic kidney disease cell lines. The secretome is the full set of proteins and other molecules a cell releases into its surroundings, the chemical vocabulary cells use to talk to one another. By cataloging what diseased kidney cells send out, he intends to identify the key factors that govern those exchanges, then trace how changes in cell-to-cell signaling line up with the way the disease starts and worsens. The approach breaks with how the field has largely worked. Most research has examined the cyst cell on its own, treating the disease as a failure inside individual cells rather than a breakdown in how cells coordinate. What the project will produce is a proposed mechanism, not a treatment. The work runs in cultured cell lines, not in patients or animals, and identifying a signaling factor is several steps removed from showing that blocking it slows cyst growth in a living kidney. Nothing in the plan tests a drug. "We will move away from research centered on single cyst cells and establish a new paradigm that expands the study of polycystic kidney disease mechanisms around the network between cells," Park said. September 8, 2026 0
  • Researchers propose treating cancer by refolding genome
    Researchers propose treating cancer by refolding genome SEOUL, September 07 (AJP) - How the genome is folded inside a cell can drive cancer without any change to the DNA sequence itself, and a review by two South Korean researchers argues that the folding should be treated as a target for cancer drugs. The review appeared in June in Experimental & Molecular Medicine, a journal published by the Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Its authors, Jang Sun-young and Yoo Kyung-hyun, work in the Laboratory of Biomedical Genomics at Sookmyung Women's University. The paper reports no new experiments. It surveys what the field has established about the shape of the genome in tumors and proposes what might be done with that knowledge. The proposal rests partly on the same laboratory's earlier results. Working with liver cancer cells, the Sookmyung group reported in July last year in the journal Cancer Communications that an activated form of the protein STAT3 pulls distant stretches of DNA into new points of contact, switching on genes that drive invasion and the growth of blood vessels that feed a tumor. When STAT3 inhibitors were applied, the drug reached its target, but the rearranged structure stayed where it was. A tumor whose architecture outlasts the drug can keep the same genes running. That is one reason a treatment can work on paper and fail in a patient. Folding matters because there is so much DNA and so little room for it. A human cell carries roughly two meters of DNA inside a nucleus about six micrometers wide, less than a tenth the width of a human hair. The molecule is more than 300,000 times longer than the space that holds it, and the way it is packed determines which genes a cell can read. That packing follows a rough order. At the largest scale the genome sorts itself into two broad territories, one where active genes cluster together and one where silenced regions do. Within those territories the DNA is divided into neighborhoods, called topologically associating domains, that behave something like walled blocks. A gene inside a block can be reached by the control switches inside the same block and is largely shielded from switches next door. Inside the blocks, the strand loops back on itself to bring particular switches into contact with particular genes. Two proteins do much of the building. CCCTC-binding factor, usually written as CTCF, marks the boundaries, and a ring-shaped protein complex called cohesin draws the strand through itself to form the loops. When either is damaged or lost, walls come down. What follows is the part that makes the folding a cancer problem. A broken boundary lets a control switch from one neighborhood reach a gene in the next, a process researchers call enhancer hijacking. Some of these switches are unusually powerful stretches of DNA known as super-enhancers, and when one of them is redirected onto a gene that promotes cell growth, the gene can be driven hard without a single letter of its sequence changing. Seeing any of this required instruments that did not exist a generation ago. Hi-C, the technique that opened the field, chemically locks together pieces of DNA that are physically touching, then sequences them to build a map of which parts of the genome are in contact with which others. HiChIP narrows that map to contacts involving a particular protein. Single-cell methods apply the same logic one cell at a time, which matters in tumors, where no two cells are quite alike. Applied across tumor types, these tools have found spatial reorganization to be widespread rather than exceptional. The review's therapeutic argument turns on plasticity. Structure, unlike a mutation, is not fixed. Boundaries that have collapsed in a cancer cell might be restored, and the review points to CRISPR-based tools that can already move or rebuild specific contacts in the laboratory. A second proposed lever is phase separation, the tendency of certain proteins to gather into dense liquid droplets inside the nucleus, much as oil separates from water. Those droplets concentrate the machinery that switches genes on, and in some cancers they form where they should not. Dissolving or restraining them is one way the review suggests the architecture might be pushed back toward normal. Jang, who took her undergraduate degree at Sookmyung and then completed a master's and doctorate there under Yoo's supervision, said understanding three-dimensional genome structure "explains the mechanism of cancer in a new way and will be an important foundation for patient-tailored precision medicine and the development of next-generation cancer treatments." None of it has been tried as a treatment. Restoring a collapsed boundary and controlling phase separation are proposals, not results. CRISPR tools that edit genome architecture are laboratory instruments used on cells in a dish, and neither the review nor the work it draws on identifies a compound that could do the same thing in a person. No drug designed to target the shape of the genome rather than its sequence has entered a clinical trial. [Reference Information] Journal/Source: Experimental & Molecular Medicine (IF=17.5, JCR 2.9%) Title: 3D chromatin architecture in cancer: mechanisms of dysregulation and emerging therapeutic strategies Link/DOI: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42249089/ AJP Takeaways - Sookmyung Women's University researchers Jang Sun-young and Yoo Kyung-hyun argue in Experimental & Molecular Medicine that the folded shape of the genome inside a cell nucleus drives cancer independently of mutations in the DNA sequence, and that the folding itself should be treated as a drug target. - The same laboratory reported in Cancer Communications in July last year that in liver cancer cells, structural rearrangements caused by the protein STAT3 persisted after STAT3 inhibitors were applied, a possible mechanism for why a targeted drug can reach its target and still fail. - The June paper is a review rather than original research, and the strategies it proposes, restoring collapsed structural boundaries and controlling the formation of protein droplets in the nucleus, have not been tested as treatments in patients. - No drug designed to target genome architecture rather than genetic sequence has entered a clinical trial. September 7, 2026 1
  • Trump renews pressure on Korea, Japan over Alaska LNG
    Trump renews pressure on Korea, Japan over Alaska LNG SEOUL, September 03 (AJP) - U.S. President Donald Trump renewed pressure on South Korea and Japan on Wednesday (local time) to participate in Alaska energy development, again speaking as though the two Asian allies were already moving toward involvement in one of his administration’s signature energy projects. “You have Japan, you have South Korea, you have all these people now going to Alaska to load up with fuel, load up with oil, build pipelines, everything else,” Trump said at the White House on Sept. 2 while discussing Alaska and Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, whom he plans to campaign for ahead of the November midterm elections. Although Trump did not explicitly name the Alaska LNG project in those remarks, they came against the backdrop of his administration’s sustained push for South Korea and Japan to invest in, supply equipment for and purchase gas from the massive project. The Alaska LNG project is designed to bring natural gas from Alaska’s North Slope across the state to Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula, where it would be liquefied and shipped primarily to Asian markets. The roughly $44 billion project includes a pipeline running about 800 miles, or 1,300 kilometers, across Alaska and an LNG export terminal with planned capacity of 20 million metric tons a year. Glenfarne Group, which owns a 75 percent stake in the project, has targeted a final investment decision on the pipeline in 2026 and another on the export terminal in early 2027, with LNG exports expected to begin in 2031. The project has gained new momentum amid disruptions to Middle Eastern energy supplies. Glenfarne said in March that it had lined up preliminary commitments covering about 13 million tons of LNG annually and needed agreements for another 3 million tons before reaching the 16-million-ton threshold — 80 percent of capacity — it wants covered by binding contracts to support financing. Japan’s JERA and Tokyo Gas have reached preliminary agreements to buy a combined 2 million tons of LNG annually, while Glenfarne has said buyers in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and Thailand have all signed up for volumes. Trump’s latest comments marked his second public reference in 2026 linking both South Korea and Japan to the Alaska project. At a White House briefing marking the first anniversary of his second term on Jan. 20, Trump touted the Alaska pipeline as a project aimed at exporting natural gas to Asia and said trade agreements with South Korea and Japan had provided unprecedented levels of funding. Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy subsequently highlighted Trump’s claim that South Korea and Japan would provide funding as he promoted progress on the project. But the January remarks were not Trump’s first-ever attempt to draw the two Asian allies into the project. “My administration is also working on a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska,” Trump told a joint session of Congress on March 4, 2025, adding that “Japan, South Korea and other nations want to be our partner.” He claimed at the time that the countries would make investments worth “trillions of dollars each.” Trump continued to raise the idea in the months that followed. In April 2025, after speaking by phone with then-South Korean acting President Han Duck-soo, Trump said the two sides had discussed a “large-scale purchase of U.S. LNG” and South Korea’s proposed joint venture with Japan in an Alaska pipeline. He returned to the subject during South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s White House visit on Aug. 25, 2025. “We’re dealing with South Korea, as you know, in Alaska, and we’re going to be making a deal, a joint venture with South Korea,” Trump said, adding that Japan was “also very strongly involved.” South Korean experts said Seoul should exercise caution in participating in the project. "Given the time frame and costs involved, the Alaska LNG project falls considerably short in terms of commercial viability," said Kang In Soo, a trade expert and professor of economics at Sookmyung Women's University. "It would not be desirable for Seoul to participate in the project simply because it is being pressured by Washington," Kang said. "A detailed feasibility study should come first." "South Korea should not participate in this project," said Rep. Kim Joon-hyung of the Rebuilding Korea Party. "The project would not yield significant benefits for South Korea and also lacks commercial viability," Kim said. "For the project to become commercially viable, substantial infrastructure investment from the U.S. side will also be necessary, so I hope companies and governments in South Korea, the United States and Japan will engage in close consultations and produce productive results," said Rep. Kim Gunn of the People Power Party. "At a time when energy security is increasingly important, I understand that South Korean companies are also showing interest in the project," Kim added. AJP Takeaways U.S. President Donald Trump renewed pressure on South Korea and Japan to participate in Alaska energy development, again suggesting on Sept. 2 that the two Asian allies were moving toward involvement in the Alaska LNG project. The $44 billion Alaska LNG project would transport North Slope gas through an 800-mile pipeline to an export terminal in Nikiski, with Glenfarne targeting LNG shipments to Asian markets from 2031. South Korean experts and lawmakers remain divided over participation, with critics questioning the project’s commercial viability while others say closer U.S.-South Korea-Japan cooperation could strengthen energy security. September 3, 2026 1
  • What makes Lotterias new Ria Bulgogi Red burgers a must-try?
    What makes Lotteria's new 'Ria Bulgogi Red' burgers a must-try? Models showcase Lotte GRS's two new "Ria Bulgogi Red" burgers during a launch event at a Lotteria restaurant near Sookmyung Women's University Station in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Sept. 2, 2026. The "Ria Bulgogi Red" features a bulgogi patty topped with spicy-sweet red bulgogi sauce and crispy fried potato strips, while the "Ria Bulgogi Double Red" adds a second patty and cheese for a heartier option. Both burgers add a spicy twist to Lotteria's signature "Ria Bulgogi," offering a sweet and spicy flavor. AJP Yoo Na-hyun September 2, 2026 1