서울대학교 농업생명과학대학 기능성생유기소재 연구실

Jan 20 A Lab Reunion: Stopping by to Celebrate our latest paper This is a proud moment for our lab! It was a pleasure to have Woojin stop by the lab. We’re celebrating the recent publication “Oligohistidine-functionalized single-walled carbonnanotube-guided RNA delivery to improve shoot regeneration efficiency in plant calli” in Advanced Functional Materials. This was a real team effort. Special thanks to Hyuna and Dr. Jeon for helping finish the final stages of the research. Congratulations to the whole team :-)

Feb 26 Congratulations, Class of 2026! Congratulations to Hyewon and Hyunsoo for earning their Master’s degrees. Best of luck on your exciting new journey :-) Mar 1 We welcome a new member! We’re very happy to welcome June to our research group as a new Ph.D. student. June worked with us before as an undergraduate researcher and showed great enthusiasm, curiosity, and dedication. We’re glad to have you on our team and wish you lots of success.

Apr 15-17 Prof. Kwak Presents at the 137th Korean Chemical Society Meeting (Jeju International Convention Center)

Prof. Kwak gave an invited talk at the Korean Chemical Society (KCS) meeting during the session "Recent Research on Convergences of Biotechnology and Nanotechnology II." Her talk, entitled “Plant Nanobionics: Engineering a Sustainable Future for Agriculture,” shared our group’s latest research at the intersection of nanotechnology, bioengineering, and plant science. She explained new ways to monitor plant health and physiological responses using plant nanobionics, highlighting how advanced nanotechnologies can help make agriculture more accurate and sustainable.

Apr 20 Seminar: Prof. Michael S. Strano (MIT, USA) We were happy to welcome Prof. Strano to Seoul National University. Before the seminar, our group met with Prof. Strano for a small discussion. We shared our recent research, exchanged ideas, and got helpful feedback on our projects. His broad perspective and creative insights gave us new ideas for our future work. Prof. Strano gave a seminar on “Understanding the Thermodynamics and Transport of Ultra-Confined Fluids Using Carbon Nanotubes and 2D Polyaramide Nanofluidic Conduits.” The seminar highlighted recent advances in nanofluidic transport and sparked lively discussions among faculty and students. The BK21 ABC Center and the SNUEI supported this seminar. After the seminar, we had dinner with Prof. Strano and continued our scientific discussions in a relaxed setting. It was a great chance to talk more and learn from a world leader in nanotechnology. We thank Prof. Strano for taking the time to meet with our group, despite his busy schedule. His insights, thoughtful discussions, and passion for science made a strong impression on us.

May 13-15 춘계공업화학회 (제주)

Our group attended the 2026 Spring Meeting of the Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry (KSIEC) on Jeju Island. We presented our latest research, talked with researchers from other fields, and made new scientific connections.

Four of our group members shared their work during the poster session:

Hyuna – Oligohistidine-Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes as pH-Sensitive RNA Delivery Nanocarriers for Improving Shoot Regeneration in Callus Tissue
Tae Uk – Plant Nanobionic SERS Nanosensors for Multiplexed, Real-Time Monitoring of Endogenous Signaling in Living Plants
Yunjeong – Antioxidant Nanosheets for Enhancing Plant Stress Tolerance
Hayoung – Bio-Inspired Nanovesicles for Precision Biomedical Applications

We are proud of our students for presenting their research and joining in valuable discussions with other researchers.

Outside of the conference, students enjoyed the nice weather on Jeju Island and spent time exploring together. We look forward to sharing more of our research at future conferences.

Jun 16 BK21 Seminar: Prof. Juan Pablo Giraldo (University of California, Riverside, USA) We were happy to welcome Prof. Giraldo to Seoul National University. Prof. Giraldo gave a seminar titled “Towards Realizing Nano-Enabled Precision Delivery in Plants,” in which he shared his latest research on plant nanobiotechnology. As a pioneer in plant nanobionics, he introduced new strategies for using nanoparticles in plants and talked about how nanotechnology can help make agriculture more sustainable. This visit was especially meaningful for our research group. Prof. Giraldo and Prof. Kwak first worked together at MIT. After joining the Strano Lab in 2014, Prof. Kwak learned the basics of plant biotechnology from Prof. Giraldo and worked with him before he started his own lab at the University of California, Riverside. Also, Dr. Jeon from our group previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Giraldo's lab at UC Riverside, so this visit was a great chance to reconnect and strengthen our academic ties. After the seminar, we had tea with Prof. Giraldo. We exchanged ideas, discussed our current research and discussed future directions in plant nanotechnology. We thank Prof. Giraldo for visiting Seoul National University and for sharing his time and expertise with our group.

Jun 18 BK21 Seminar: Prof. Boyoung Park (Kyung Hee University) We were happy to welcome Prof. Park to our lab. Prof. Park gave a special lecture, “Photo-Induced Reactions in Batch and Flow: Single- and Multiphase Systems.” She shared recent advances in flow photochemistry, explaining the basics and practical applications of photochemically induced reactions in both batch and continuous-flow systems. After the lecture, we continued our discussions in the lab by doing some exploratory experiments together. Working side by side helped us share ideas, test new concepts, and find promising directions for future research. We thank Prof. Park for visiting our lab and sharing her expertise with us.

Jun 22-26 Prof. Kwak Gives an Invited Talk at ICAR 2026 in Singapore

The International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR) brought together researchers from many countries to share the latest advances in Arabidopsis and plant research. The conference gave us a chance to exchange ideas with the global plant science community, learn about developments across different areas of plant biology, and discuss new opportunities where plant science, nanotechnology, and bioengineering intersect. Prof. Kwak took part in ICAR 2026 at the National University of Singapore. She gave an invited talk called “Advanced Nanotechnology for In Vivo Plant Monitoring and Precision Tissue Culture” in the session 'Plant Technology and Innovation'. In her presentation, she focused on our work developing nanoscale tools to monitor plant signals in real time and exploring new methods for precision tissue culture. We thank the ICAR 2026 organizers for the opportunity to share our research with the global plant science community.

Jul 6-17 Minyoung's Research Internship at Nongwoo Bio Minyoung participated in a two-week research internship at Nongwoo Bio, where she gained practical experience in plant breeding and crop disease resistance. Minyoung worked on activities such as crop phenotyping and harvesting, KASP genotyping, preparing plant materials for disease resistance tests, and collecting seeds from infected plants. This internship was a great chance to see how plant biotechnology is used in industry. This internship was supported by our research project, funded by the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture, and Forestry (IPET). We thank Nongwoo Bio for giving Minyoung this valuable chance to gain hands-on experience and deepen her understanding of agricultural research in industry.

Jul 23-Aug 6 진로캠프 (작성 중) Aug 3-13

Hayoung’s Internship at FarmHannong

While interning at FarmHannong, Hayoung gained practical experience researching methods to protect crops using biological and chemical approaches. To identify and study the phages, she used PCR and gel electrophoresis to analyze bacteriophage cocktails; she also worked to improve the growth conditions of the beneficial bacteria isolated from the rhizosphere. Hayoung participated in experiments to control plant diseases and helped inoculate the leaves of plants that had been treated with pesticides to assess the effectiveness of the treatments. As a result of these activities, she gained valuable experience in microbiology, molecular biology, and plant pathology and discovered that lab research can yield real-world solutions for crop protection. This internship was a great chance to see how plant biotechnology is used in industry. This internship was supported by our research project, funded by the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture, and Forestry (IPET).

Aug 28 Congratulations to Our Summer 2026 Graduate! Congratulations to Yunjeong on completing her Master’s degree! Her dedication, hard work, and perseverance in research have been truly appreciated. We are very proud of her achievements and wish her all the best as she begins an exciting new chapter! 🎓