Professor Hwang Cheol-sang (LIFE) was selected as the Scientist of November by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future planning and National Research Foun- dation of Korea. Prof. Hwang established a protein degradation signal, which slows aging and treat cancer, degenerative neuronal disease, infection, and anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibody caused by improper degradation of protein. He announced that N-terminal methionine, a protein synthetase start site related to 75,000 proteins in a living body, can be a degradation signal when it is followed by hydrophobic amino acid, like leucine.
The fact that acetylated N-terminal amino group operates as degradation signal was announced already by Prof. Hwang in Science in 2010. That the non-acetylated N-terminal amino group also promotes protein degradation through another path was announced by him this year in Cell.
This award is given to a superior researcher in industry-academic field to promote science technology in Korea. It has been given every month since April 1997.