Spatiotemporal control of brain activity by optogenetics has emerged as an essential tool to study brain function. To silence brain activity, optogenetic probes, such as halorhodopsin and archaerhodopsin, inhibit transmitter release indirectly by hyperpolarizing membrane potentials. However, these probes cause an undesirable ionic imbalance and rebound spikes. Moreover, they are not applicable to use in non-excitable glial cells. In this study we engineered Opto-vTrap, a light-inducible and reversible inhibition system to temporarily trap the transmitter-containing vesicles from exocytotic release. Light activation of Opto-vTrap caused full vesicle clusterization and complete inhibition of exocytosis within 1min, which recovered within 30 min of light off. We found a significant reduction in synaptic and gliotransmission upon activation of Opto-vTrap in acute brain slices. Opto-vTrap significantly inhibited hippocampus-dependent memory retrieval with full recovery within an hour. We propose Opto-vTrap as a next-generation optogenetic silencer to control brain activity and behavior with minimal confounding effects....read more
We develop and validate new THz broadband beamforming systems for 6G mobile communications. The controllable beamforming system realizes the characteristics of ultra-wideband and low loss at the same time....read more
Prof. Oh’s group has developed a neutralizing antibody against SARS-CoV-2 by computational method. The antibody binds to all SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Omicron, with pico- to femto-molar binding affinity....read more
Radiation therapy is one of the most important tools in the fight against cancer. Generally, tumor control is mainly considered for treatment planning. However, radiation-induced side effects are considered as well. The NTCP is the probability of critical normal tissue having complications as calculated from the combined effect of the radiation dose and volume. Some normal tissue complications are very important for a normal quality of life after radiation therapy. The NTCP calculator is software developed at KI IT Convergence to calculate the NTCP with various methods in a clinical format, DICOM. The Lyman-Kutcher-Burman NTCP model is implemented with a flexible parameter input interface. The NTCP calculator will be used at local university hospitals for research and clinical purposes....read more
Researchers at KI Robotics entered CES 2022 Autonomous Racing using their Indy AV-21 autonomous vehicle and competed with the world’s top researchers. Our team developed a cutting-edge autonomous racing software stack from scratch and successfully finished the race as a semi-finalist, only to lose to the top European teams....read more
Prof. Yeom’s group has developed new chiral nanostructures with broad chiroptical activity from the UV to the SWIR region to expand the choice of material platforms. ...read more
Prof. Yoon’s group has suggested a facile way to produce protein-based amyloid aggregates, allowing long-range orientational and positional order. Using evaporation-induced self-assembly, a rationalized hierarchical structure will open new opportunities for developing novel functional biomaterials....read more
Prof. YongKeun Park’s group has developed a label-free tomographic method for measuring and reconstructing 3D dielectric tensors, which have not been directly measured thus far. ...read more
Prof. Bae’s group has developed a series of porous organic polymers possessing various functional groups, which were incorporated into an in-house polyimide to fabricate mixed-matrix membranes for CO2/N2 separation. Their systematic study revealed that both the structural properties and chemical functionality should be optimized together to obtained an ideal filler material for CO2-selective mixed-matrix membranes. The optimized membrane showed ultrahigh CO2 permeability of 2988 Barrers (158% higher than that of a pure polymer membrane) with a decent enhancement of the CO2/N2 selectivity....read more
KAIST KPC4IR collaborated with the Daejeon Institute for S&T Enterprise and People (DISTEP) and the European Commission Joint Research Center (EC JRC) for a study which aims to unlock AI, big data, and start-up ecosystems to revitalize the bio-health industry in Daejeon. Through this study, the center lays out a policy and strategy framework for bio healthcare transformation in Daejeon and in the Chungcheong provinces....read more