Kim Sung-hoon (biologist)

• 1981 B.S. Seoul National University
• 1983 M.S. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
• 1991 Ph.D. Brown University, U.S.

Sunghoon Kim has been studying novel functions of human aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (ARSs) and searching for their pathophysiological connections to human diseases (PNAS 105:11043,^[1] 2008; Nat Rev Cancer 11:708, 2011^[2]). He has identified potent novel tumor suppressors such as AIMP2/p38 (Nat Genet 34:330, 2003^[3]), AIMP3/p18 (Cell, 120:209, 2005^[4]). Besides, he has also investigated novel extracellular activities of ARSs and associated factors such as lysyl-tRNA synthetase (KRS) (PNAS 102, 6356, 2005^[5]), tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase(WRS)(Nat Struct Mol Biol 11:149, 2004^[6]) and AIMP1/p43 (PNAS 103:14913, 2006^[7]). He also discovered the oncogenic variant of AIMP2, designated AIMP2-DX2, as one of the critical factors that determines the survival of lung cancer patients (Plos Genet 7:e1001351, 2011^[8]). More recently^[when?], he found that leucyl-tRNA synthetase (LRS) serves as an amino acid sensor for mTOR signal pathway (Cell 149:410, 2012^[9]).

• 1991 – 1994: Post-doc, MIT
• 1994 – 2001: Associate Professor, Sung Kyun Kwan University
• 2001 – present: Professor, Seoul National University
• 1988 – 2007: Director, Center for ARS Network National Creative Research Initiatives
• 2007 – 2010: Director, Center for Medicinal Protein Network and Systems Biology
• 2010 – present: Director, Medicinal Bioconvergence Research Center

• 2000: Donghun Award, Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• 2003: Korea Science Award, Ministry of Science and Technology
• 2003: Scientist of the Month, Ministry of Science and ICT and National Research Foundation of Korea
• 2006: Top Scientist and Technologist Award of Korea, Ministry of Science and Technology^[10]
• 2012: Award of Korean National Academy of Science^[11]
• 2015: Ho-am Prize in Medicine, Ho-Am Foundation

• AwardsAminoacyl tRNA synthetase
• Leucyl-tRNA synthetase