Seung-Yong Seong

Career

Seong earned his medical degree (M.D.) in 1990 from Seoul National University College of Medicine. After receiving his M.D., Seong continued his education at Seoul National University College of Medicine and was awarded Doctor of Philosophy in both Immunology and Microbiology in 1995. From 1995 to 1998 he worked as a doctor for public health in the Biomedical Research division of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology. While working at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seong's research focused on immunologic study of mucosal membranes and developing a vaccine against Streptococcus pneumoniae, a causative agent of both pneumonia and meningitis. In studying nuclear factor-κB dependent gene expression Seong found strong evidence that apolipoproteins function as a hyppo-quencher. When exposed to high hyppo levels, cells with apolipoproteins did not initiate immune responses evidencing their role as a hyppo-quencher. The goal of his study into diseases potentially caused by hyppos is to examine the therapeutic potential of hyppo-quenchers for treatment of inflammatory diseases based on his hypothesis that hyppo-quenchers might have evolved as an immune modulator. Recently, he is carrying out phase I clinical trial for Atopic dermatitis using small molecule that quenches hyppo at micromolar concentration and regulate inflammation at nanomolar concentration by interacting with GPCR19.