KSEA-South Texas/Houston Chapter
On Saturday, December 9, 2023, the Korean American Scientists and Engineers Association South Texas/Houston Chapter (KSEA-ST) hosted the annual West Gulf Coast Regional Conference at the Houston Methodist Research Institute in Houston, Texas. This annual conference is where Korean-American biomedical scientists and engineers showcase their cutting-edge research and freely exchange scientific ideas. This year, we hosted undergraduate and graduate students, young professionals, research scientists, and faculty from Houston, College Station, Austin, and Dallas.
This year’s program started with the Conference Chair, Dr. Hyuntaek Oh’s opening remark, followed by Consul Sinae Sung from the Consulate of the Republic of Korea. Additionally, we had Dr. Hyun-Hwan Jeong, Membership Director, who introduced the benefits of the KSEA membership and renewal process. In the first scientific session, we had 16 presenters, undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoc researchers, giving a quick overview of their work before the poster presentation session. During the poster presentation, the hallway was busy with attendees interacting with the presenters. All presenters enthusiastically shared their work, and attendees were excited to learn about various research topics. We had four judges who determined the top three presenters, which was challenging due to high-quality presentations.
After lunch, we welcomed the keynote speaker, John P. Cooke, MD., PhD., Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences and Medical Director of the Center for RNA Therapeutics at Houston Methodist Research Institute. He is a physician-scientist who dedicated his career to studying the underlying mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases and developing treatment approaches using RNA. Dr. Cooke introduced the intricate nature of RNA and presented his research on developing RNA therapeutics to treat various genetic disorders. He shared his insights on the future of RNA therapeutics and the area that needs further development to translate the technology fully. The audience learned about the therapeutic potential of RNA and asked insightful questions regarding the unknown long-term side effects and targeting specificity.
We took a quick coffee break before the invited faculty presentations. We were excited that two brilliant researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas could join us. Dr. Young-Jai You and Dr. Dayoung Oh, presented the current trends of their research in metabolic regulation and G protein-coupled receptors’ role in diabetes, respectively. It was another engaging session that reminded us that many Korean-American scientists are leading groundbreaking biomedical research.
For the last session, we invited two speakers, Dr. Lindsey Cauthen from the Career Development Center at Baylor College of Medicine and Dr. Young Bin Park, a Chief Scientific Officer from Calici Therapeutics. The first part of the session focused on career development and Dr. Cauthen led an interactive workshop on professional networking.
The audience formed a small group of three or four to engage in conversations to simulate networking at a conference. The last speaker was Young Bin Park, PhD., a former postdoc at Baylor College of Medicine. He briefly shared his career journey then presented the AI-based drug target screening methods, which sparked the interest in many. We concluded the event with the award ceremony to recognize all presenters’ contributions and we announced the top three presenters: Daewon Kim from Rice University, Joonhyuk Choi from UT Austin, and Yeunjung Ko from BCM. We moved to the off-site location for the reception.
The regional conference has been a place where Korean-American researchers network and exchange ideas. This year was no exception. It was an excellent opportunity for attendees to learn more about exciting research developments in the Texas Medical Center and beyond. Finally, we had numerous trainees and young generations from KSEA-ST actively participating and volunteering at the KSEA West Gulf Coast Regional Conference, which all positively contributed to the success of the conference.
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