On the 24th, the Doosan Yonkang Foundation (Chairman Yonghyun Park) held an awards ceremony for the '2024 Doosan Yonkang Pediatrics and Adolescents Academic Award' at the Korean Academy of Pediatrics and Adolescent Science conference held at the Grand Walkerhill Hotel in Seoul. Professor Jahye Kim of Asan Medical Center of Ulsan College of Medicine and Eunsang Lee of Guro Hospital of Korea University College of Medicine presented their awards ceremony. Each professor was awarded a prize of 10 million won and a plaque.

The Doosan Yonkang Foundation established this academic award for the first time this year and selected winners in the basic and clinical categories to advance Korean pediatric science and encourage researchers' research motivation.

Professor Jahye Kim, winner of the basic category, was recognized for her achievements in proposing a method for detecting 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 an abnormality that occurs during fetal brain development and is a disease in which the cerebral cortex has a localized abnormal structure and is accompanied by epileptic seizures.

Professor Eunsang Lee, winner of the clinical category, was recognized for his performance in analyzing the characteristics, outcomes, and prognostic factors of Korean pediatric patients who received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation* for juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, a very rare form of pediatric leukemia. Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia is a disease that causes hepatosplenomegaly, a swelling or enlargement of the liver and spleen, and a decrease in red blood cells and platelets.

* Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: Transplanting another person's hematopoietic stem cells (cells that produce blood cells such as white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets in the bone marrow)