Yonsei professor wins Korea's top science award for nanomedicine breakthroughs

"The precision of nanotechnology offers a new concept and means for solving the hardest problems in modern medicine — through nanomedicine, we are tackling challenges in disease diagnosis, drug delivery and brain science," said Cheon Jin-woo, distinguished professor at Yonsei University.

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Federation of Science and Technology Societies named Cheon, Underwood Distinguished Professor at Yonsei University, as the recipient of the 2026 Korea Best Scientist and Technologist Award. He will receive a presidential citation and a cash prize of 300 million won ($195,000).

The Korea Best Scientist and Technologist Award, a presidential honor regarded as the country's most prestigious science prize, has been presented since 2003 to recognize researchers who have achieved landmark results representing the best of Korean science and technology. A total of 48 scientists have received the award through last year.

Cheon was recognized for pioneering the field of nanomedicine by merging nanochemistry with biotechnology to propose medical approaches that push beyond the limits of conventional medicine — including disease diagnosis, cell therapy and neural circuit correction. Nanomedicine has already brought innovation to disease diagnosis and drug delivery, and is expected to play a central role in advancing brain-computer interface (BCI) technology and resolving longstanding challenges in brain science.

Cheon developed nano-magnetogenetics technology, demonstrating that magnetic fields can wirelessly and remotely control neuron activity in living animals. The achievement simultaneously addresses two longstanding obstacles in BCI research — wireless control and molecular-level biological selectivity — and presents a new treatment paradigm for precisely regulating specific neural circuits in the brain without surgery. The findings were published in Nature Materials in 2021 and Nature Nanotechnology in 2024.

Cheon founded the Nanomedicine Research Center at the Institute for Basic Science in 2015 and attracted an International Max Planck Research Center to Korea in 2025, strengthening international research collaboration and domestic research infrastructure as he works to establish Korea as a global hub for nanomedicine. He also serves as a fellow of the American Chemical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry, and as an associate editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, raising Korea's profile in the international scientific community.

Cheon earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry from Yonsei University before completing his doctorate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He has been a professor in the Yonsei University Department of Chemistry since 2002 and currently holds the Underwood Distinguished Professorship, where he also mentors the next generation of researchers.

"I aim to advance technology that uses external magnetic fields to precisely control specific neural circuits in the brain, addressing the root causes of neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and depression that have been difficult to treat," Cheon said. "This technology will open a new treatment paradigm for safely regulating brain function without surgery."