Appointment of Dr. Kim Se-Geon and Dr. Han Sang-Il as faculty members at the College of Pharmacy

▲ Dr. Kim Se-Geon (left) and Dr. Han Sang-Il (right)

Kim Segeon, a doctorate from the laboratory of Professor Kim In Su at the School of Pharmacy, has been appointed as an assistant professor at Sookmyung Women's University College of Pharmacy in March 2024.

After obtaining his doctorate, Dr. Kim spent a year as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania (Prof. Gary A. Molander), conducting research on the synthesis of bioisosteric compounds with novel functional groups using photocatalysts and on the development of DNA-encoded library (DEL) for DNA-based drug discovery. He has published a total of 27 SCI(E) papers and also patented a new method for the synthesis of aminofluorenes. Recently, he published a paper as the first author in ACS Catalysis (IF: 12.9) titled "Metal-Free Photoinduced Acylboration of [1.1.1]Propellane via Energy Transfer Catalysis."

Following his research at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Kim moved to the Department of Chemistry, Princeton University (Prof. Dave MacMillan), for eight months, where he researched ring-closure reactions via position-selective radical generation from small molecules using photocatalysts. He is currently studying the scalability of reactions to various substrates after optimizing the reactions.

Dr. Kim stated, "I will continue to discover high-value bioactive compounds from simple and inexpensive compounds using the new reactivity of photochemical reactions, and strive to make significant progress in the discovery of lead compounds for synthetic drug development."

Meanwhile, Dr. Han Sangil from the same laboratory also shared news of his appointment as an assistant professor at the Department of Innovative Pharmacology at Kyungpook National University in March 2024.

Dr. Han received his doctorate in February 2018 on "sp2 & sp3 C–H Bonds Functionalization under Transition-Metal Catalysis" and spent about three years as a postdoctoral researcher at UT Austin and Temple University chemistry departments.

Through his research on the synthesis of various novel bioactive compounds using transition metal catalysts, 

Dr. Han has published a total of 45 SCI(E)-grade papers (11 as the first author and 34 as a co-author). In particular, he developed a new alkylation reaction method for heterocycles showing various bioactivities, titled "Reductive C2-Alkylation of Pyridine and Quinoline N-Oxides Using Wittig Reagents," published as the first author in Angewandte Chemie-International Edition (IF: 16.823). He also developed a new fluorination reagent using photocatalysts for hydrotrifluoroacetylation of alkenes, aiming at introducing various bioactive molecular structures and published the results in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (IF: 15.0).

Furthermore, after his postdoctoral research, Dr. Han worked as a Senior Scientist at TCG GreenChem Inc., a pharmaceutical company in the United States, where he conducted medicinal chemistry research for drug development and process development for RAS(on) inhibitors, gaining various experiences in drug development research.

Dr. Han stated, "I will conduct research to lay the foundation for innovative drug development by directly introducing amine molecules that are present in various pharmaceuticals and natural products but are not easily synthesized, and strive to lead various lead compound discoveries."