I have been trained under the mentorship of Professor Sun Kwang Kim at Kyung Hee University, Korea for several years starting from my undergraduate. I am proud of being a part of the great neuroscience academic lineage in Korea and Japan (Fig. A).

On the basis of their scientific contribution, I have interests in in vivo two-photon imaging, astrocyte-centered neurobiology, stroke, chronic pain, and neuromodulation (acupuncture, transcutaneous electrical stimulation, vagus nerve stimulation, and focused ultrasound stimulation).

Sir Frederick Grant Banting (1891-1941)

By the fall of that year a dearth of patients and a lack of funds had driven Banting to the University of Western Ontario where he took a part-time job as demonstrator in the medical school. On the night of 31 October 1920, while taking notes on an article by Moses Barron for an upcoming lecture on the pancreas, Banting conceived the "idea" that would change not only his life but the lives of countless others.

In early November, Banting went to Toronto to meet Prof. Macleod. Although skeptical of Banting's procedure, Macleod arranged for the young surgeon to have laboratory space in the physiology department, dogs, and an assistant. After considering his options in London, Banting returned to Toronto in May 1921 for what was scheduled to be two months of research at the University.

Although he had assisted Miller with laboratory experiments at the University of Western Ontario, Banting had less experience in that setting than the young assistant J.J.R. Macleod assigned to him before leaving the city for the summer, Charles H. Best. Best had recently graduated from the physiology and biochemistry course and had done laboratory work as part of his degree. Originally the experiments were planned to play to Banting and Best's strengths: Banting was to perform the surgery and Best was to measure the blood and urine sugar levels. Eventually, however, each man became adept at the other's specialty. Observations and calculations from the experiments were recorded in a series of notebooks by both men. The notebooks also document Banting and Best's many difficulties with their experiments that summer: the two-stage pancreatectomy was a lengthy process and many dogs died of infection in the summer heat. But their persistence and hard work paid off when, on 30 July Banting and Best injected diabetic Dog 410 with a pancreatic extract that caused a dramatic reduction in blood sugar levels. Both men enthusiastically described their accomplishment in letters to Macleod and then spent the month of August continuing their experiments on Dog 92.

(...) and on 25 October 1923, Banting became the first Canadian to win a Nobel Prize in Medicine, conferred jointly on Banting and Macleod. The shy, serious farmer's son who wrote his mother every Sunday had become a national hero.