Cheon Jinwoo. Cheon Jinwoo is the H.G. Underwood Professor at Yonsei University and the Founding Director of the Center for Nanomedicine, Institute for Basic Science (IBS). As a leading chemist in inorganic materials chemistry and nanomedicine Cheon and his research group mainly focus on developing chemical principles for synthesizing complex inorganic materials and nanoprobes/actuators used in imaging and controlling of cellular functions within the deep tissue in living systems.

Throughout his career, he has received numerous prestigious awards, including Inchon Prize (2010), ChungAm Prize (2012), Ho-Am Prize (2015), Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researcher in the field of chemistry (2014, 2015, 2016) and cross-field (2018). He is a fellow of the American Chemical Society, Royal Society of Chemistry, and Korean Academy of Science and Technology. In addition to his research, he serves as a senior editor of Accounts of Chemical Research and an editorial advisory board member of several leading journals, including Journal of Materials Chemistry, Nano Letters, Materials Horizons, Chemical & Engineering News and Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Education
Cheon began his academic journey at Yonsei University in 1981, where he majored in chemistry. He earned both his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in 1985 and 1987 at Yonsei University, respectively. In 1993, under the guidance of Professor Gregory S. Girolami, he received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Career
Following his doctoral studies, he continued his research as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California Berkeley. For the next three years, he was a staff research associate at UC, Los Angeles (UCLA) before returning to South Korea to work as an assistant and then associate professor at KAIST. His research at KAIST focused on geometrical shape control of nanoparticles and magnetic particles. This also marked his first publication on nanocrystals which is a reoccurring interest in his research career and a source of multiple highly cited articles.

He started working at Yonsei University as a full professor in 2002 and later became the Horace G. Underwood Professor in 2008. From 2010 to 2016, Cheon was the director of the National Creative Research Initiative Center for Evolutionary Nanoparticles. In 2015, he became the founding director of IBS Center for Nanomedicine at the Yonsei University (IBS CNM at Yonsei) in Seoul and has been serving as a director since then.

His research at Yonsei on nanoscale phenomena has led to nanomaterial applications in biology, including highly sensitive MRI contrast agents and nanoscale toolkits for cells. In 2004, he demonstrated the principle of size-dependent MRI contrast effects using nanoparticles which enabled the development of magnetism-engineered iron oxide (MEIO) as an ultra-sensitive nanoparticle MRI contrast agent which might help detect early-stage cancer. Cheon also has developed magnetic nanomachines which have various mechanical components in hundreds nanometer scale, allowing remote and precise controlling of nanostructures using magnetic fields. These nanomachines are promising for targeted drug delivery and minimally invasive surgery, enhancing functionality by such mechanical components. From 2021, his work has notably advanced the field of magnetogenetics for wireless control of deep tissue in vivo systems, especially brain activities. Magnetogenetics uses mechanical torque or force of magnetic nanoparticles to manipulate neuronal activity with mechanosensitive ion channels (e.g. Piezo1), offering a non-invasive method in meter scale long-distance to control brain function. This innovative approach allows for the precise regulation of neuronal circuits using magnetic fields, providing potential new treatments for neurological disorders and insights into brain function.

Awards and honors
2024: Glenn T. Seaborg Memorial Lecture in Inorganic Chemistry
2024: Humboldt Research Award
2018: Madhuri and Jagdish N. Sheth International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement (University of Illinois)
2015: Ho-Am Prize in Science (HOAM Foundation)
2014: The World's Most Influential Scientific Minds (Thomson Reuters)
2013: KCS Academic Achievement Award (Korean Chemical Society)
2012: POSCO TJ Park Prize (POSCO TJ Park Foundation)
2012: Korea's 100 Most Influential Person for Next 10 Years (DongA Daily News)
2010: Inchon Award (Inchon Memorial Foundation)
2007: Song-Gok Science Prize (Korea Institute of Science and Technology)
2004: KCS Award in Inorganic Chemistry (Korean Chemical Society) 
2002: Young Scientist Award, Korean Academy of Science and Technology
2001: Wiley Young Chemist Award (Korean Chemical Society-Wiley & Sons)

Selected recent publications
Lin, Mouhong; Lee, Jung-uk; Kim, Youngjoo; Kim, Gooreum; Jung, Yunmin; Jo, Ala; Park, Mansoo; Lee, Sol; Lah, Jungsu David; Park, Jongseong; Noh, Kunwoo; Lee, Jae-Hyun; Kwak, Minsuk; Lungerich, Dominik; Cheon, Jinwoo (2024-05). "A magnetically powered nanomachine with a DNA clutch". Nature Nanotechnology. 19 (5): 646–651. doi:10.1038/s41565-023-01599-6. ISSN 1748-3395. 
Kim, W.-S.; Min, S.; Kim, S.K.; Kang, S.; An, S.; Criado-Hidalgo, E.; Davis, H.; Bar-Zion, A.; Malounda, D.; Kim, Y.H.; Lee, J.-H.; Bae, S.H.; Lee, J.G.; Kwak, M.; Cho, S.-W.; Shapiro, M.G.; Cheon, J. “Magneto-acoustic protein nanostructures for non-invasive imaging of tissue mechanics in vivo” Nat. Mater., 2024, 23, 290.
Lee, J. U.; Shin, W.; Lim, Y.; Kim, J.; Kim, W. R.; Kim, H.; Lee, J. H.; Cheon, J. "Non-contact long-range magnetic stimulation of mechanosensitive ion channels in freely moving animals" Nat. Mater., 2021, 20, 1029.

 Shin, T.-H.; Kim, P. K.; Kang, S.; Cheong, J.; Kim, S.; Lim, Y.; Shin, W.; Jung, J.-Y.; Lah, J. D.; Choi, B. W.; Cheon, J. "High-resolution T1 MRI via renally clearable dextran nanoparticles with an iron oxide shell" Nat. Biomed. Eng., 2021, 5, 252.
 Cheong, J.; Yu, H.; Lee, C. Y.; Lee, J.-u.; Choi, H.-J.; Lee, J.-H.; Lee, H.; Cheon, J. "Fast detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA via the integration of plasmonic thermocycling and fluorescence detection in a portable device" Nat. Biomed. Eng., 2020, 4, 1159.
 Lim, Y.; Lee, C.-H.; Jun, C.-H.; Kim, K.; Cheon, J. “Morphology-conserving non-kirkendall anion exchange of metal oxide nanocrystals” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2020, 142, 9130
 Choi, J.; Kim, S.; Cheon, J.  et al. "Distance-dependent magnetic resonance tuning as a versatile MRI sensing platform for biological targets" Nat. Mater. 2017, 16, 537.
 Seo, D.; Southard, K.M.; Cheon, J.; Jun, Y-w. et al. "A Mechanogenetic toolkit for interrogating cell signaling in space and time" Cell, 2016, 165, 1507.

References

External links
Google Scholar Jinwoo Cheon
IBS Center for NanoMedicine

1962 births
Living people
Institute for Basic Science
Recipients of the Ho-Am Prize in Science
South Korean organic chemists
POSCO TJ Park Prize
Humboldt Research Award recipients