Research Team
Regulatory and IP
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So-Young Yoon, Australian Registered Nurse
Regulatory Affairs Team Leader
Regulatory and IP
Tae Young Yoon, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
As a founder and Chief Executive Officer, Tae-Young Yoon Ph.D. is responsible for directing all aspects of company strategy, planning, and operations. Although Dr. Yoon started his research career as an electrical engineer, studying liquid crystal display technologies, he made a bold switch to the field of biophysics in the middle of his graduate study. After starting his own research lab at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), he was named as a principal investigator of the National Creative Research Initiative of South Korea and one of the first awardees of Samsung Research Foundation Grant. These unconditional supports enabled his research team to explore a technique studying protein-protein interactions vastly different from conventional ones.
He founded Proteina in 2015 with a vision of generating large-scale, quantitative data at the level of protein-protein interactions. He is currently a professor in the school of biological sciences and a member of the future research committee of Seoul National University.
Hongwon Lee, Ph.D.
Chief Technology Officer
Hongwon Lee was named Proteina’s Chief Technology Officer in December of 2018 and served as a member of Proteina’s board of directors since May 2020. He previously served as the company’s senior principal scientist since 2017. He leads early-stage research, PPI biomarker discovery, and clinical device development for successful product development and commercialization of Proteina’s research portfolio. He is passionate about translating Proteina’s technology into a precision diagnostic platform to help cancer patients.
Hongwon developed single-molecule PPI profiling technology, the core technology of Proteina, with Tae-Young Yoon. He has translated Proteina’s technology into diagnostic solutions in the manner of personalized diagnostics. He has expertise in single-molecule fluorescence imaging technology, biophysics, and molecular biology. Hongwon holds a Ph.D. as well as a B.S. in physics from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, South Korea.
Daiseung Lee, U.S. CPA
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Daiseung Lee has served as a Chief Financial Officer since May 2020. He is responsible for all financial operations of the company, including financial planning and reporting, treasury, tax, accounting, and investor relations. He also leads Proteina’s regulatory affairs, intellectual property, legal, and human resources matters.
Before joining Proteina, he worked for Kim & Chang Law Office with extensive experience representing foreign and domestic clients in corporate finance advisory practices ranging from customs and international trade, international arbitration, tax, due diligence, and corporate investigation. He has B.S. degree in materials engineering and business administration from Yonsei University Seoul Korea. He is a U.S. Certified Public Accountant.
Byoungsan Choi, Ph.D.
Principal Researcher
Byoungsan Choi has served as a principal researcher since September of 2018. He leads a team which focuses on development of a BTKi biomarker. His team is also working on how to apply Proteina’s technology to FFPE samples. He is also working on two PPI drug projects with biology and chemistry labs at Seoul National University. He developed Proteina’s imaging device with Osong KBIO Health. He is passionate about exploring the way various proteins work, and their applications to targeted therapies.
He reconstituted phosphor-tyrosine pathway based on single-molecule PPI profiling technology under Tae-Young’s supervision. He has experience with various kinds of proteins such as membrane proteins and large protein complexes. He has expertise in single-molecule fluorescence imaging technology, biophysics, and molecular biology. He holds a Ph.D. and a B.S. in physics from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).
Jiyoung Ryu, Ph.D.
Principal Researcher
Ji Young Ryu has served as a principal researcher since June 2020. She is leading a product development team that focuses on automation of bioassay processes and quality control design. Current projects include toy model setup and validation tests.
Formerly she, with members of her team, led product design and manufacturing projects and succeeded in obtaining approval for clinical good manufacturing system (GMP) from the Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS). She also developed the automated module of Proteina’s first generation imaging device and designed and completed the software validation report.
Prior to joining Proteina in 2018, she served as a scientific reviewer for bio-startups in a bio-business company. She received her B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in physics from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).
Hyunwoo Kim, Ph.D.
Chief Researcher
Hyunwoo Kim is responsible for biomarker development as a chief researcher at Proteina’s R&D Center. He is conducting research on precise measurement of protein-protein interactions (PPI) of HER family proteins and research on discovery of biomarkers related to -IAP (Inhibitory of apoptosis pathway) proteins. He is also involved in a project to develop an automated single-molecule PPI signal measurement machine.
He received his Ph.D. in biophysics at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) by developing and utilizing single-molecule technology to study the quantitative measurement of protein expression levels and protein-protein interactions specifically present in cancer cells.
Kyung Chan Park, Ph.D.
Chief Researcher
Kyung Chan Park is a Chief Researcher at Proteina’s R&D Center, leading the biomarker discovery projects for inflammatory disease and cancer. His research interest lies in developing single-molecule co-IP assays that can measure protein-protein interactions of supramolecular complexes.
Kyung Chan received his Ph.D. in medicine and health from the University of Sydney under the supervision of Prof. Des Richardson, where he conducted research in the area of cancer metastasis and development of anti-cancer therapeutics. During his time as a Ph.D. candidate and a postdoctoral research associate, Kyung Chan has deciphered mechanisms underlying MET protein degradation by a novel therapeutic, DpC, which has been clinically assessed in a phase I clinical trial.
Shi Ho Kim, Ph.D.
Chief Researcher
Shi Ho Kim joined Proteina as a chief research scientist in July 2021. He is currently leading a project on developing a high-throughput cancer diagnosis kit. The project is based on Proteina’s unique, single-molecule co-IP technology and his expertise on super-resolution optical microscopy along with DNA photo-lithography. He is passionate about protein-protein interaction (PPI)-based cancer research and is dedicated to developing precise, advanced cancer diagnosis tools for patients.
He received his B.S. in chemistry (Magna Cum Laude) from Stony Brook University and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at The Pennsylvania State University. He developed a super-resolution optical microscopy technique called “Super-Resolution Optical Lithography with DNA” (SOLiD), that can assemble nanoparticles in a desired pattern and interparticle distance below the optical diffraction limit (Nano Letters 2019).
So-Young Yoon, Australian Registered Nurse
Regulatory Affairs Team Leader
So-young Yoon serves as our Clinical & Regulatory Affairs and oversees Proteina’s regulatory strategy throughout the countries Proteina is targeting, including Korea and the U.S. She also cooperates with the Product Development team to satisfy product requirements to comply with GMP and quality management system.
She holds a bachelor’s degree from Queensland University of Technology in Australia and currently qualified as a Registered Nurse in Australia. Prior to joining Proteina, she worked in the outpatient cancer center and the oncology-hematology unit for nine years at Greenslopes Private Hospital (GPH) of the Global Ramsay Health Care and Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) in Australia.
So Yi Jeong, Patent Attorney
Intellectual Property Team Leader
So Yi Jeong has served as Proteina’s in-house patent attorney since 2021. She manages Proteina’s intellectual property rights and works to build a strong IP portfolio with global competitiveness through the establishment of our R&D strategy based on IP.
Before joining Proteina, as a patent attorney, she worked for the IPS patent law office with extensive experience in application for patents/trademarks/designs, IP consulting, supporting technology commercialization/technology transaction, and patent trial/litigation. She received her B.S. in biology from Jeonbuk University, Korea, in 2010.