Roh Sung-hoon, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences at Seoul National University, has been named the July recipient of the "Korea Science and Technology Award," hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) and co-organized by the National Research Foundation of Korea and the Seoul Economic Daily.
Ahead of "World Brain Day" on July 22, MSIT and the research foundation selected Roh for his research on protein structure and function and his identification of the principles behind cytoskeleton regeneration. Roh, a structural biologist who has studied protein structure and function, used cryo-electron microscopy to analyze how tubulin, the key structural protein of the cytoskeleton, is produced and recycled. Through this work, he became the first in the world to reveal that the cytoskeleton is not merely a structure that is built, but is maintained by a "bidirectional quality control system" that continuously inspects, repairs and recycles it. The research findings were published in the international journal Science in October 2025.
