Professor Sun Choi Becomes the First Asian Associate Editor of ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters
- Date2023.10.06
- 12787
She was selected as an associate editor of an ACS Journal in recognition of her achievements in computational medicinal chemistry, such as AI-based drug discovery.
Professor Sun Choi at the Department of Pharmacy was selected as an associate editor of the American Chemical Society’s ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, one of the globally reputable academic journals in the medicinal chemistry field, from October 1st (Sun).
ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters is a medicinal chemistry journal published by the American Chemical Society (ACS), one of the leading scientific societies in size and academic authority, founded in 1876. Its editorial board comprises the world’s top academics and industry experts in medicinal chemistry. Professor Choi became the first Asian associate editor – and first South Korean – in recognition of her achievements in computational medicinal chemistry, such as AI-based drug discovery.
As an associate editor, Professor Sun Choi will participate in editorial meetings to decide the scope, manuscript categories, and management of the journal, decide whether manuscripts sent by researchers from across the world should go through external review, select reviewers and gather the reviewers’ opinion before deciding whether to publish papers. The initial term of associate editor is three years, and associate editors can serve their terms in a row up to ten years.
Professor Sun Choi has done multiple drug discovery technology transfers, filed multiple patent applications and registrations at home and abroad, and published more than 110 papers in globally high-impact journals, including Cell Metabolism, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie, and Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Her papers were about as follows: innovative research introducing theoretical biophysical methods using molecular modeling in medicinal chemistry, unraveling three-dimensional structure, dynamics, multiscale simulation, and in vivo signaling mechanism of target proteins; development of antagonist-to-agonist ligand; construction and utilization of big-data and AI-based drug discovery platform. She elevated computer-aided drug design in South Korea to the global-level, conducted multiple interdisciplinary research projects with distinguished organizations in South Korea and many other countries, including the U.S., China, and Japan, and has collaborated with global companies like Microsoft. She also received multiple awards, including the Presidential Achievement Award on the 52nd Science Day for promoting science and technology, Nogam Academic Award and Munwu Cheon Medicinal Chemistry Academic Award from the Pharmaceutical Society Of Korea, TCI-SEJIN CI Academic Award, and Pharmaron Lectureship Award from Pharmaron, a global R&D service provider, in addition to being selected as a Peng Cheng Scholar by Shenzhen, a pioneer city of China’s fourth industrial revolution.
Professor Choi is currently a chair of the Biomedicine Committee and lay member of the Bio Special Committee at the Presidential Advisory Council on Science and Technology, a Korean delegate of the Asia Biophysics Association and the Asia Pacific Protein Association, and the director of the Global AI Drug Discovery Center at Ewha Womans University. She was also a lay member of the National Supercomputing Center, president of the Korean Society for Protein Science, president of the Medicinal Chemistry branch at the Pharmaceutical Society of Korea, vice president of the Korean Society for Bioinformatics, vice president of the Korean Society for Molecular and Cellular Biology, vice president of the Korean Society of Organic Synthesis, an expert member of Division of Medical Science at the National Research Foundation, and chair of the Scientific Program Committee for AIMECS 2023 by the Asian Federation for Medicinal Chemistry.