The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning and the National Research Foundation of Korea have selected Professor Jang-Soo Chun of GIST School of Life Sciences as the recipient of the Scientist of the Month award for August 2014. The ministerial award has been given every month since April 1997 in order to raise public awareness of science and promote spirits of researchers.

Professor Chun’s team revealed a new mechanism of osteoarthritis, a disease characterized by cartilage degeneration. Osteoarthritis is becoming increasingly common with population aging, but its treatment depends mainly on surgery and pain alleviation due to the lack of a fundamental cure. As such, Professor Chun’s research is expected to provide a new clue to preventing and curing the disease.

Professor Chun’s team identified the roles played by zinc, the zinc transporter ZIP8, and the transcription factor MTF1 in osteoarthritis pathogenesis. The research results were published in Cell, one of the highest impact journals in life sciences, in February 2014. Earlier in 2010, Professor Chun’s team also revealed the relationship between the transcription factor HIF-2α and osteoarthritis and published their findings in Nature Medicine.