Yoo, Jejoong
Professor
Computational and AI-driven biophysics
Prof. Jejoong Yoo’s research group investigates how the sequence of biological building blocks—DNA, RNA, and amino acids—governs complex biophysical phenomena, including protein folding, sequence-specific recognition by DNA-binding proteins, self-assembly and phase separation of macromolecules, and transport through nanochannels. Biological building blocks differ by only a few atoms, and the interaction energies between them can vary by merely a few kT. Therefore, models with atomic resolution and kT-level accuracy are essential for capturing their behavior. The group’s primary goal is to develop such models by synergistically combining molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and AI methodologies. Prof. Yoo’s long-term vision is to extend MD simulations toward experimentally relevant time and length scales, enabling realistic modeling of complex cellular processes. He has authored more than 50 publications in leading international journals, including Nature Communications, Nucleic Acids Research, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
- B.S. in Physics and B.S. in Molecular Biology, Seoul National University, Korea (1996–2001)
- Ph.D. in Biophysics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA (2010) – Advisor: Prof. Qiang Cui
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, USA (2010–2017) – Advisors: Prof. Aleksei Aksimentiev, Prof. Taekjip Ha
- Young Scientist Fellow (PI), Center for Self-assembly and Complexity, Institute for Basic Science, Korea (2017–2020)
- Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea (2020–2024)
- Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Sungkyunkwan University, Korea (2024–2025)
- Professor, School of Computational Sciences, Korea Institute for Advanced Study (2025–present)
- Young Scientist Fellowship ($750,000), Institute for Basic Science, 2017
- Scholarship for Distinguished Undergraduates, Korea Foundation of Advanced Studies, 1998 – 1999
Publications at KIAS
-
Evaluating BioEmu-GeneratedKinase Ensembles RevealsStructure Selection as the Virtual Screening Bottleneck
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL INFORMATION AND MODELING, 2026 -
OTalign: optimal transport alignment for remote protein homologs using protein language model embeddings
BIOINFORMATICS, 2026 -
Charge characteristics of fluorescent proteins modulate FUS LCD condensation
BIOPHYSICAL JOURNAL, 2026 -
Polyamine and tau: a chemical framework for understanding the hyperphosphorylated tau condensation
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL MACROMOLECULES, 2026 -
APE1 coordinates its disordered region and metal cofactors to drive genome surveillance
NUCLEIC ACIDS RESEARCH, 2026 -
StrucPTM: a database of structurally validated protein modifications and their conformational variation
BIOINFORMATICS, 2026 -
DeepFold-PLM: accelerating protein structure prediction via efficient homology search using protein language models
BIOINFORMATICS, 2025
- Office: 7410 / TEL) 82-2-958-3884 /
- School of Computational Sciences, Korea Institute for Advanced Study
- 85 Hoegiro Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 02455, Republic of Korea.