Hannah Chung, a KAIST master’s degree student, proudly won an award at the Copenhagen Bioscience Conference, a poster competition held in May sponsored by the Denmark Novo Nordisk Foundation. After hearing this delightful news, The KAIST Herald met with her to learn about the details.

▲ Hannah Chung, a master's degree student

Can you briefly introduce yourself?

Hello, my name is Hannah Chung, and I was in the entering class of 2006 and graduated from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering here at KAIST.

Please explain about the Copenhagen Bioscience Conference that you attended.

It was a scientific conference held from May 6 to 8. The conference supports the biotechnology industry and brings together some of the world’s greatest researchers to discuss the latest scientific results and the hottest topics. The participants are carefully selected by evaluation of their research abstracts. The purpose of the conference is to enable participants to build international networks and relationships, and to exchange knowledge and ideas about the field.

What motivated you to apply for this international bioscience conference?

Well actually, my professor recommended me to participate in this conference, and I thought it would be a great opportunity and experience.

Could you introduce the research work that you presented in the conference?

The title of the research is “Production of Native-Size Spider Silk Protein in Escherichia coli through Metabolic Engineering Approach.” To add more detail, my research was about mass-producing the silk proteins from spiders by using microorganisms. It is hard to control the production rate of silk proteins if spiders are the only specimens to produce the silk proteins because spiders have aggressive behaviors and are hard to deal with. Therefore, I found a method to mass produce the spider silk protein by using microorganisms and confirmed the results. Now, the research will further lead to industrializing this method.

How did you feel after having won the conference’s doctorate poster competition as the Best Research Poster?

I was very surprised. I did not expect to win from the competition as there were many other great researchers, and I still think that I was lucky.

What were some hardships that you went through as you prepared for the conference?

For scientists and researchers, the biggest agony is when results do not show as much as we expect. I think it was my biggest hardship too when the experiment I researched did not have much progress

After attending the conference and having many interactions and discussions with other great researchers in the field, what inspiration did you gain from it?

As I talked with many great participants, I realized that many of them are researching and studying to help others. I was very inspired by their attitudes and decided that I, too, should do my research to help others who are in need of help.

What are some merits of conducting research in the field of biomimetics and other fields with an interdisciplinary approach?

I find it fascinating that as I research more and more, I discover new facts when dealing with living organisms. There are still many things to be found, and biomimetics is a very interesting and attractive field.

What is your future plan as a biochemist?

At the end, I want to develop medicines and help mass produce them. I know that in Africa, there are places where there are always shortages - even the ones that are sufficiently produced in other countries. I would like to help them with my research someday. Also, for my short-term plan, I would like to earn my doctoral degree here in KAIST and have my postdoctoral course abroad. 

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