Pukyong National University

Lee Ye-Chan, a researcher from PKNU, won the ‘best paper award’ at the SPIE international conference 2023

- received ‘BSC best Paper award’ for research on anti-cancer and phototherapy technology using light

△ Researcher Lee Ye-Chan (center) and Lim Seong-Hee (left) and Shin Hwa-Rang working on a master’s degree. ⓒPhoto Lee Sung-Jae (PR team)

Pukyong National University (President Jang Young-Soo) announced that researcher Lee Ye-Chan (doctor, biomedical engineering) from the Marine-integrated biomedical technology center received the best thesis award and a ten-thousand-dollar prize from Boston Scientific, a globally specialized company, at an international academic conference hosted by the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE).

Researcher Lee recently presented his thesis ‘research on a diffusing applicator-based interstitial photodynamic therapy for a locally advanced prostate cancer’ (advisory Prof. Kang Hyun-Wook, biomedical engineering) at the Photonics west 2023 hosted by SPIE held in San Francisco, USA, and received an excellent evaluation at the conference.

Lee drew attention from the academic world by defining the results of research on large-area optical transport technology that maximizes the effects of anticancer and photodynamic therapy using light.

In this research, he irradiated light on prostate cancer cells and xenograft animals using micropatterning-based diffuse optical fiber capable of transmitting light uniformly at 360 degrees. As a result, he discovered that it promotes the expression of cancer cell natural death-inducing factors, and consequently, enables light treatment of a wide area.

With the support from the key research institutes for university support projects in the science and engineering field (senior researcher, prof. Jung Won-Kyo) and the Korea medical device development fund, which is a governmental department (senior researcher, ceo Kim Seong-Min from Bluecore company), Lee conducted this research with Lim Seong-Hee and Shin Hwa-Rang in their master’s at the department of industry 4.0 convergence bionics engineering and obtained outstanding results for this research.

Lee was recognized for his excellence as a researcher registered a total of 15 papers, including 6 papers published as the lead author of the SCI level, and registered 1 patent through his research and development on optical transport device and photobiomodulation for disease-specific therapy.

As for the SPIE, founded in 1955, is the world's most authoritative society in the field of optoelectronics, with more than a quarter of a million cumulative members from 183 countries. About 4,500 papers were introduced at this conference, and 60 people, including researcher Lee, were selected as winners. <Pukyong Today>

△ Optical therapy using diffuse optical fiber