▲ Attendees are taking a commemorative photo at the '2024 Doosan Yonkang Pediatrics and Adolescents Academic Award' ceremony. From the left, Doosan Yonkang Foundation CEO Rhee Won-jae, Ulsan University College of Medicine Seoul Asan Medical Center Professor Kim Ja-hye, Korea University College of Medicine Guro Hospital Professor Lee Eun-sang, and Korean Pediatrics and Adolescents Society Chairman Kim Ji-hong.
On the 24th, Doosan Yonkang Foundation held the '2024 Doosan Yonkang Pediatrics and Adolescents Academic Award' ceremony at the Korean Pediatrics and Adolescents Society Academic Conference held at the Grand Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul, and awarded 10 million won in prize money and a plaque to Professor Kim Ja-hye of Ulsan University Asan Medical Center and Professor Lee Eun-sang of Korea University Guro Hospital, respectively.
Doosan Yonkang Foundation established this academic award for the first time this year to promote the development of Korean pediatrics and adolescents and to encourage researchers' research motivation, and selected winners in the basic and clinical categories.
Professor Kim Ja-hye, the winner of the basic category, was recognized for her achievements in suggesting a method to detect mutations present in extremely small amounts of brain cells through research on brain tissue of patients with focal cortical dysplasia, a representative pediatric intractable epilepsy disease. Focal cortical dysplasia is a disease in which the cerebral cortex has an abnormal structure locally and is accompanied by epileptic seizures due to an abnormality that occurs during the development of the fetal brain.
Professor Lee Eun-sang, the winner of the clinical division, was recognized for his analysis of the characteristics, outcomes, and prognostic factors of Korean pediatric patients who received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation* for juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, a very rare childhood leukemia. Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia is a disease that causes hepatosplenomegaly, in which the liver and spleen swell or enlarge, and a decrease in red blood cells/platelets.
* Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: Transplanting another person's hematopoietic stem cells (cells that create blood cells such as white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets in the bone marrow)