Sunghoon Kim

Biocon focuses on human aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (ARSs) and their interacting proteins as our primary target space of interest, and explores their potential to address diverse human diseases. These enzymes emerged early in evolution and catalytically link their cognate amino acids to tRNAs for protein synthesis. For this reason, ARSs have been traditionally considered as housekeeping proteins solely dedicated to protein synthesis. However, recent new findings from Biocon and other groups world-wide on the novel functions of ARSs are rapidly changing the classical view of these enzymes. Indeed ARSs are emerging as central coordinators linking cell fate determination processes with protein synthesis.