Introducing our new Associate Editor – Professor Seung Bum Park

25 Jun 2012

We at Molecular BioSystems are very pleased to announce our newest Associate Editor – Professor Seung Bum Park. Professor Park is an Associate Professor in the Chemistry Department at Seoul National University, and joined the team at Molecular BioSystems in May.

Seung Bum Park received his B.S. in chemistry and M.S. in organic chemistry at Yonsei University (Seoul, Korea). After one and half years of military service in the Korean Air Force, he started his graduate studies at Texas A&M University and received a Ph.D. in 2001 under the supervision of Prof. Robert F. Standaert. He was then appointed as a HHMI Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University (with Prof. Stuart L. Schreiber). In 2004, he started his independent career as an Assistant Professor, and was promoted to an Associate Professor with tenure in the Chemistry Department at Seoul National University in 2008. In 2009, he spent his sabbatical as a visiting Professor at the Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, USA (with Prof. Peter Schultz). His research interests range from chemical biology, diversity-oriented synthesis, combinatorial chemistry, and bioorganic/organic chemistry, to medicinal chemistry, target identification, and fluorescent bioprobes. He has published more than 120 scientific papers, 3 books and filed 25 patents so far.

Below, Professor Park shares his views on chemical biology, and the research areas he is working in currently:

In the last decades, a new terminology has emerged from the interface of chemistry and biology, known as Chemical Biology. The unique basic concept of this field is the collaborative approach to answer mysterious biological questions through the use of chemical probes. Chemical biology involves the study of living systems which aids our understanding of the molecular basis of complex phenotypes. It assumes that small organic molecules can selectively modulate the cellular network of complex interactions and cause phenotypic changes. Actually bioactive small molecules have been used in biological research to induce dramatic cellular phenotypes and provide insights into biological processes, even without knowing their protein targets. In this basic research, bioactive small molecules (or chemical probes) can serve as an enhancer/inhibitor of specific biological events. The ever-increasing demand for molecular agents possessing desirable properties places a high priority on the development platform enabling access to such bioactive small molecules. My research group at the Chemistry Department of Seoul National University, under the title of “Chemical Biology Laboratory”, has been focused on interdisciplinary research for the efficient discovery of novel bioactive small molecules using various technologies such as molecular diversity using pDOS strategy, high throughput/high content screening using fluorescent bioprobes (glucose bioprobe and Seoul-Fluor-based bioprobe), medicinal chemistry using rational design, combinatorial chemistry, chemoinformatics, and target identification (FITGE technology).

We are very pleased to welcome Professor Park to the Molecular BioSystems Editorial Board as Associate Editor and feel that this is another step forward to further meeting the needs of our authors.

If your research falls under Professor Park’s expertise, why not submit your next article to him?