| Introduction |
The Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Kyungpook National University School of Medicine provides comprehensive medical care for a full range of pulmonary conditions and diseases in the community. We also try to elucidate the underlying mechanisms and clinical aspects of respiratory diseases and develop a training environment for the next generation of academic physician scientists. In addition to respiratory diseases, the division is deeply involved in critical care medicine and plays a major role in taking care of patients in the intensive care unit of the Kyungpook National University Hospital. It is comprised of two hospital sites, each of which emphasizes different aspects of care for patients with lung diseases.
In the Chilgok branch of the Kyungpook National University Hospital, we focus on thoracic oncology including lung cancer. Since 1998, Dr. Park and his colleagues have been interested in the genetics of lung cancer, especially genetic polymorphism in Koreans. Their main topics of investigation into lung cancer are as follows: 1) clinical diagnosis and treatment; 2) development of biomarkers for personalized diagnosis and therapy; 3) research on the molecular biology of lung cancer pathogenesis; 4) development of target agents; and 5) research on the lung cancer genome. They acquired a patent for polymorphisms of DNA repair gene, such as XPA and XPG, and DNA methylation gene, such as DNMT3B, MBD1 related to risk of lung cancer in Koreans. They have also been doing research about the role of microRNA in the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer.
In the Samdukdong campus, our pulmonary specialists conduct clinical research in the overall area of respiratory diseases including airway diseases, interstitial lung disease, pulmonary embolism, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and other related diseases. Dr. Chang-Ho Kim and his colleagues are interested in early diagnosis of tuberculosis. Recently they have been doing research regarding the comparison of new diagnostic techniques such as flow cytometry and conventional methods for tuberculosis. Main research interests of Dr. Seung-Ick Cha are pulmonary embolism and interstitial lung diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Dr. Cha and his colleagues have done several clinical studies of pulmonary embolism and research on biomarkers of interstitial lung diseases. |
| Professors |
Chairman: Jae Hee Lee, MD, PhD
Jae-Yong Park, MD, PhD
Chang-Ho Kim, MD, PhD
Seung-Ick Cha, MD, PhD
Shin-Yup Lee, MD, PhD
Seung Soo Yoo, MD, PhD |