Sehwan’s defense was held on May 25 with the thesis committee that consisted of Prof. Sang-Cheol Bae (committee chairman; Distinguished Professor of Rheumatology in Hanyang University), Prof. Kwoneel Kim (Assistant Professor of Biology), and his adviser, Kwangwoo. During his 2-year graduate research period, he has put a lot of effort into understanding the effects of allele-specific expression of HLA-DRB1 in rheumatoid arthritis, given the amino-acid changes in HLA-DRB1. His thesis, entitled “Unraveling qualitative and quantitative effects of HLA-DRB1 in rheumatoid arthritis”, was supported by grants from the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning and the Ministry for Health & Welfare and by a full scholarship from Kyung Hee University. 

His graduation ceremony is scheduled to take place in August. He will join Corestem Inc. in July, a pharmaceutical company that researches and commercializes stem cell technology. Sehwan will continue his translational research on the efficacy and the action mechanism of stem cell therapy, especially in systemic lupus erythematosus, using human omics data, starting his alternative military service in Corestem. Congrats!