한양대학교 약학대학 하정미교수|Hanyang University Professor

Jung-Mi Hah

Professor Jung-Mi Hah at Hanyang University College of Pharmacy, is s leading lab of medicinal chemistry, specially focusing on research of structure based, fragment-based protein kinase inhibitors. Dr. Hah received a Ph.D. degree from Northwestern University, Department of chemistry, Evanston, IL under guidance of professor Richard B. Silverman, who developed a milestone drug for neuropathic pain, Lyrica. Her postdoctoral training was then, completed in the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University under the guidance of Professor David Lawrence, now the chair of medicinal and chemistry department at University of North Carolina.
The research interests of Prof. Hah’s group are Medicinal Chemistry, which is a big part in new drug discovery. In other words, it is to design small molecules that could fit into the “Receptor”, which includes receptor proteins, enzymes and deoxyribonucleic acid(DNA) and to synthesize them with efficient time and cost. As we live in the post genome era, we are able to determine the proteins within our bodies that invoke many types of disease. Furthermore, we are able to reduce the abnormal phenomenon of the proteins with small compound of 500 molecular weight. Since all these works are based on massive amount of money and long time, it could be called a composite art. The “Biological target protein” she is currently interested in is the “Protein Kinase”, and there are approximately 518 protein kinase discovered. It is a name or a collective of enzymes that is responsible for signal transduction between cells or inside the cells by transferring phosphoryl group to other proteins. Although the similarity of these kinase’s structure makes it very difficult to develop a selective inhibitor, it is a research area that is attractive and worth challenging. The protein kinases her group working on can be categorized into two part; 1. Anticancer drug discovery : since most of “ Protein Kinase” are related to cell proliferation, the inhibitor can be developed into anticancer agents; 2. Therapeutics for neurodegenerative disease : there are kinases which are especially related to “Neuronal cell apoptosis”, so it could be further developed into the cures for neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinsonian disease, etc.

She teaches organic chemistry and medicinal chemistry for undergraduate and graduate students in Hanyang University. Her professional activity includes publishing research articles, abstracts, book and book chapters; patenting; peer-reviewing journal articles and grant proposals to the funding bodies of Korea. She is also a member of Korea Chemical Society, Korea Pharmaceutical Society.>
She is the author of more than 40 SCI articles including Nature(Structural Biology), Journal of American Chemical Society, Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry and 35 patents.