PhD and associate professor Han Kun Sop (pictured), lecturer at the University of Sciences who was highly appreciated at the 13th Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction held on the internet four years ago, made his debut in the Second Critical Assessment of Intrinsic Protein Disorder this year and won the highest appraisal.

According to him, to assess the structure of proteins which play the most important role in organisms is one of the main tasks of life sciences and one of the major scientific problems to be solved in the 21st century.

In order to promote research into this subject on a world-wide scale, the Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction has been held biennially since 1994.

In recent years, it has been confirmed that proteins have so-called intrinsically disordered regions where they do not have their intrinsic 3-D structures but have constantly changing structures. Since it is importantly related to different diseases like AIDS and cancer, many countries are intensifying research into this subject.

Under such circumstances, the Critical Assessment of Intrinsic Protein Disorder was initiated in Italy in 2017 and the first competition was held between September 2018 and December 2020, involving 40-odd research groups from over 20 countries including the UK, Australia and Hungary.

Han Kun Sop decided to take part in the second event at the end of December last year.

To enter the competition, he had to present a program that predicts intrinsically disordered regions of proteins before May 15 as required by the organizing committee.

“Not only it was entirely different in content and mode from the Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction I attended in 2018 but the time for preparation was quite limited, and I was totally stressed at that time,” Han recalled.

He devoted himself to further improving the efficiency of the method of predicting intrinsically disordered regions which he had been painstakingly delving into for several years.

At last, he presented the completed prediction program to the organizing committee.

By late July, the organizing committee examined the programs presented by dozens of participating research groups from different countries in the field of intrinsically disordered region prediction.

On August 24, Han received an invitation from the organizing committee to the review meeting of the Second Critical Assessment of Intrinsic Protein Disorder.

The invitation which started with “Congratulations!” said that his research findings drew great interest in the competition and hoped that he would publish his research result in the review meeting to be held in Ireland and join in the roundtable seminar with two other participants.

Han Kun Sop encourages his faculty colleagues and students, saying “The world level is never far away. Anyone can reach it if they make strenuous efforts with determination. Exert yourself again and again!”