Kim V. Narry, distinguished professor at Seoul National University and director of the Seoul-based Center for RNA Research at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) is the first Asian to win the prestigious HFSP Nakasone Award. (IBS)

By Kang Gahui

A domestic scholar has won the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Nakasone Award, a prestigious international honor in the life sciences.

The Ministry of Science and ICT on July 13 said Kim V. Narry, distinguished professor at Seoul National University and director of the Seoul-based Center for RNA Research at the Institute for Basic Science, is the first Asian to win the prize.

The HFSP on its site said she won "for her discovery of noncanonical RNA tailing pathways that established new regulatory layers of gene expression and laid the molecular foundation for durable mRNA therapeutics and vaccines."

Launched in 1989, the Strasbourg, France-based program supports innovative and challenging global collaborative research in the life sciences. It has backed approximately 8,500 researchers from 73 countries, 31 of whom have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.

The Nakasone Award, established in 2010, recognizes researchers who have achieved scientific progress or broken new ground in the life sciences. Four of the past 21 winners have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize.

Kim will deliver a commemorative lecture at the HFSP Awardees Meeting next year and receive a medal, certificate and research grant of USD 15,000.

kgh89@korea.kr