CVR News

Director Gou Young Koh was selected to become a Member of The National Academy of Sciences, Republic of Korea

Led by Dr. Jung Hyun Bae and Professor Gou Young Koh, researchers at the Center for Vascular Research within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) discovered that a protein called Merlin is indispensable for tip EC induction by regulating intracellular VEGFR2 downstream signaling during sprouting angiogenesis.

News & Views: Apelin drives maintenance and expansion of the vascular niche in intestinal crypts

Gou Young Koh

Nature Cardiovascular Research 2022

Published online: June 16, 2022 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-022-00071-3

Viewpoints: Dual-blocking antibody against VEGF-A and angiopoietin-2 for treating vascular diseases of the eye

Gou Young Koh, Hellmut G. Augustin and Peter A. Campochiaro

Trends in Molecular Medicine 2022

Published online: April 05, 2022 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molmed.2022.03.004

Full article in here : IBS Research News

Ji Hoon Ahn, JungMo Kim, Seon Pyo Hong, Sung Yong Choi, Myung Jin Yang, Young Seok Ju, Young Tae Kim, Ho Min Kim, MD Tazikur Rahman, Man Ki Chung, Sang Duk Hong, Hosung Bae, Chang-Seop Lee and Gou Young Koh. Nasal Ciliated Cells Are Primary Targets for SARS-CoV-2 Replication in Early Stage of COVID-19. 

J Clin Invest. 2021;131(13):e148517. 

DOI : 10.1172/JCI148517

A team of scientists led by Gou Young Koh at the IBS Center for Vascular Research have identified new subsets of gut connective cells, which are crucial for lymphatic growth. Their new findings have been reported in the journal Nature Communications. 

Scientists at IBS Center for Vascular Research have reported Angpt2 as a key adipokine driving lipid accumulation into the SAT. This is through endothelial FA transport mediated by Angpt2- integrin α5β1 signaling, which prevents ectopic fat accumulation into endocrine organs, and thus prevents insulin resistance. Their findings have been reported in the journal Nature Communications on June 12.

IBS Scientists have reported the key signaling pathway governing the integrity of FRCs in modulating immune responses. They found that the Hippo-YAP/TAZ signaling pathway plays dominant roles in regulating the immune-responsive features of FRCs. They confirmed through genetically modified mouse models that deletion or hyperactivation of YAP/TAZ led to impaired differentiation and maintenance of FRCs to varying degrees, leading to disrupted formation and compartmentalization of LNs and their immune responsiveness. 

Scientists led by Dr. Gou Young Koh at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) revealed an accurate route of cerebrospinal fluid drainage and characterized meningeal lymphatic vessels at the skull base for the first time, in the July 24 Nature.

Therapies targeting abnormally accumulated protein such as beta-amyloid for patients with Alzheimer’s disease are currently being actively developed. By drawing the clear roadmap of exit route for macromolecules leaving the brain found by this study, researchers may be able to find a link between dysfunction of this system and the accumulation of toxic metabolites within the brain. Dr. Koh says, “It definitely warrants more extensive investigation of meningeal lymphatic vessels in patients with age-related neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s disease prior to clinical investigation.”

Researchers at IBS Center for Vascular Research discovered the mechanism how metastatic tumor cells grow in lymph nodes. The study revealed that tumor cells undergo a metabolic reprogramming toward fatty acid oxidation (FAO). Transcriptional co-acitvator YAP, potentially activated by accumulated bile acids, was selectively activated in LN metastatic tumors, leading to the up-regulation of genes in the FAO signaling pathway. This study propose that inhibition of FAO or YAP signaling to prevent the metabolic adaptation of metastatic tumors offers a potential therapeutic strategy for mitigating tumor LN metastasis. This study was published in Science at February 8 2019.

The 28th Ho-Am Prize Presentation Ceremony was held on June 1st at the Ho-Am Art Hall in Seoul. The winner of this year is Professor Hee Oh of Yale University (Science), Professor Nam-Gyu Park of Sungkyunkwan University (Engineering), Distinguished Professor Gou Young Koh of KAIST (Medicine), Opera Singer Kwangchul Youn (The Arts) and Sister Carla Kang (Community Sevice). Each of them received a gold medal and 300 million won of prize. The ceremony was attended by more than 500 people including Professor Tim Hunt, Nobel Prize winner in 2001, Italian Ambassador to Korea Marco della Seta, Nak-in Sung SNU president, and Sung-chul Shin, president of KAIST.

Director Gou Young Koh has been awarded the 28th Ho-Am Prize in Medicine, which is awarded annually to those who have made distinguished contributions in the field of medicine, physiology, and pharmacology.

Congratulations!

Hyunsoo Cho, a Ph.D. student at IBS Center for Vascular Research was named for the Young Investigator Conference Scholarships Award for his work in ‘Yap/Taz negatively regulates Prox1 during developmental and pathologic lymphangiogenesis’.

Congratulations!

Seon Pyo Hong, a post-doctoral fellow of IBS Center for Vascular Research received Best Post Award at the conference for his work in ‘Surrounding PDGFRβ+ stromal cells regulate lacteal integrity through Yap/Taz-induced VEGF-C secretion in intestinal villi’

The 2018 Lymphatics Gordon Research Conference (GRC), chaired by IBS Center for Vascular Research Director Gou Young Koh and Dr. Mihaela Skobe (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA) was successfully held bringing leader scientists working on lymphatics together from March 11-16. 2018 at Lucca, Italy. This meeting focused on finding out new factors for regulating lymphangiogenesis and lymphatic integrity, as well as to treat pathologies involving the lymphatic system including the role of brain lymphatics in neurodegenerative disease.

This review summarize the most recent findings of organotypic differentiation of lymphatic endothelial cells in terms of their distinct (patho)physiological functions in skin, lymph nodes, small intestine, brain, and eye. This review also discuss recent advances in the understanding of the heterogeneity of lymphatic vessels with respect to the organ-specific functional and molecular specialization of lymphatic endothelium, such as the hybrid blood-lymphatic identity of Schlemm’s canal, functions of intestinal lymphatics in dietary fat uptake, and discovery of meningeal lymphatic vasculature and perivascular brain lymphatic endothelial cells.

Researchers at IBS Center for Vascular Research discovered a key regulator of physiological angiogenesis. The study revealed that YAP and TAZ, an end effector of Hippo signaling, are critical for sprouting angiogenesis, vascular barrier formation, and maturation. These findings extend the understanding in the transcriptional regulation of vessel sprouting and barrier maturation, and suggest the new therapeutic options for pathologic angiogenesis, such as age-related macular degeneration. This study was published in Journal of Clinical investigation at August 14 2017 and highlighted as a Scientific Show Stopper.

A review article for organotypic vasuclature just published in Science.

This review summarizes recent progress in the understanding of organotypic vascular differentiation and function.

IBS Launches its First Center in the Field of Basic Medical Sciences.

KAIST  Professor Gou Young Koh begins his research in July as a director of the IBS Center for Vascular Research. Gou Young Koh, a distinguished professor from the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), has been selected as a director at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS).

Director Koh, a world-renowned pioneer in the field of Vascular Biology, begins his research from July 1 as a director of the Center for Vascular Research.