SEOUL, September 22 (AJP) - The Phytochemical Society of Europe gave its PSE-Bruker Award to a scientist based outside Europe for the first time this month, choosing a pharmacy researcher at Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul, the university said Thursday.
Kang Kyo-bin, a professor in the university's Division of Pharmacy, received the award on Sept. 15 at the society's regular conference in Caserta, Italy, which ran through Sept. 18.
Sponsored by Bruker, a global maker of analytical instruments, the award goes to senior scientists who have advanced natural products research through new methods, especially those using mass spectrometry. The technique identifies chemical compounds by measuring the mass of their molecules.
The Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE) was founded in Cambridge, England, in 1957 and brings together European researchers who study the compounds plants produce. These natural products have long served as a starting point for new medicines.
Kang used his lecture at the PSE conference to present an approach that applies mass spectrometry to the functional metabolomics of natural products, a field that maps the small molecules inside living things and works out what each one does.
He credited "the students and researchers who have worked hard with me, and our collaborators at home and abroad."
"I will continue to contribute to research that lays the groundwork for discovering and using the diverse compounds nature has created throughout its evolutionary history," Kang said.
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