Pioneered new fields through interdisciplinary and international researches in chemistry, medicine, and engineering Pioneered the way for breakthroughs in treating intractable diseases such as cancer and genetic disorders through founding of biopharmaceutical venture companies
The late Sung Wan Kim
Chair professor, University of Utah, USA
(1940~2020)
- Academic background
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1963
Graduated from the Department of Chemistry at the Seoul National University
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1965
M.S. degree from the Graduate School (Physical Chemistry) of the Seoul National University
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1969
Ph.D. degree from the Graduate School (Physical Chemistry) of the University of Utah, USA
- career
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1999~2020
Member of the National Academy of Medicine of USA
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2003~2020
Member of the National Academy of Engineering of USA
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2000~2020
Chair professor at the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacochemistry of the University of Utah, USA
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2002~2020
Chair professor at the Department of Bioengineering of the University of Utah, USA
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2005~2017
Chair professor at the Department of Bioengineering of Hanyang University, Korea
- Awards received
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1988
Clemson Award for Basic Research(Society for Biomaterials)
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1995
Founders Award (Controlled Release Society)
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2003
Hoam Prize in Medicine
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2014
Terumo Global Science Prize (Japan)
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2018
Science Award by the Korea Nobel Science
Professor Sung Wan Kim is a globally renowned biomedical scientist who has pioneered original researches in the fields of biopolymers, drug delivery, and gene therapy, which enabled expansion of the means of treatment of intractable diseases.
He was born in 1940 in Busan, South Korea, and was encouraged by his mother‘s advice to study chemistry, which led to his enrollment into the Seoul National University. After having earned his master's degree at the Seoul National University, he went to study abroad upon the suggestion of Henry Eyring of the University of Utah who visited Korea as a fellow researcher of Lee Tae-gyu, the “godfather of chemistry” in Korea. Upon the successfully completion of his Ph.D. degree program in physical chemistry at the University of Utah in 1969, Eyring introduced him to the lab of Willem J. Kolff at the same university, which was leading the artificial organ research at the time. Professor Kim joined the lab as a post-doctoral researcher. This provided him an important opportunity in changing his research direction to biopolymers and medicinal chemistry.
Working as a professor at the College of Pharmacy of the University of Utah since 1974, he conducted interdisciplinary researches and researches of scale. In addition to hosting regular international conferences, he established the Center for Controlled Chemical Delivery in 1986 and organized a research group by successfully securing research grants of more than $30 million. Since then, he actively pursued the "Triangle Research Collaboration" among the University of Utah, the University of Twente in the Netherlands, the University of Tokyo and the Tokyo Women's University. This scientific research of scale and international collaboration led to the creation of new research areas based on multidisciplinary approaches.
His pioneering research in biomaterials and drug delivery was one of his key achievements. The blood compatible polymer material that he developed made core contribution to the success of the world’s first artificial heart transplantation conducted by Kolff in 1982. The diversified development of such functional biopolymers opened up new domains in which they can be used as drug delivery agents. His research paper published in Naturein 1997 has been cited 2,430 times, and he was acknowledged as a global authority in the field of drug delivery systems (DDS).
He also produced excellent achievements in gene therapy, which involves introduction of genes into human cells for treatment. Since 1996, he developed groundbreaking gene therapy techniques of using polymer-based gene delivery systems in replacement of viruses and pioneered a wide range of gene therapy applications. The treatment of metastatic lung cancer using a gene delivery system was one of his major achievements. In the 2000s, he also focused on improving the effectiveness of stem cell therapy by combining a gene delivery material with it
Furthermore, he started a biopharmaceutical venture company to commercialize his research accomplishments. In 1986, he founded TheraTech that specialized in the development of transdermal absorption agent, MacroMed that specialized in the development of injectable protein drug delivery system in 1995, and Expression Genetics that specialized in the development of non-viral gene delivery system in 2000. Through these companies, he developed and launched Transdermal Patch, a patch-type drug delivery system, OncoGel, a recombinant protein delivery system, and a non-viral IL-12 gene delivery system, etc.
He published 830 SCI research papers, attained 38 U.S. patent registrations, and fostered 150 young scientists. He is the only Korean-American who received the honor of being elected a member of both the US National Academy of Medicine and the US National Academy of Engineering. He also received the Clemson Award for Basic Research and the Founders Award, two of the highest honors in areas of biomaterials and drug delivery, the Terumo Global Science Prize, which is given to globally outstanding scientists, and the Hoam Prize (Medicine), the most prestigious award in Korea, as well as the Science Award of the Korea Novel Science.
Professor Sung Wan Kim is a great theoretical and applied scientist who pioneered new research domains of biopolymers and drug delivery through multidisciplinary research in chemistry, medicine, and engineering, and has also founded a biopharmaceutical venture companies to actively utilize his achievements to treat the intractable diseases of humankind.
