N&M PhD student Juyeong Cho was awarded the highly competitive Korean Honor Scholarship! This is Juyeong’s second recognition this summer after winning the Graduate Women in Science’s 2025-26 Ruth Dickie Research Scholarship. Congrats, Juyeong!
“I’m honored to win this award because it recognizes my journey as a Korean researcher abroad and the support of my mentors, family, and friends. I hope to carry this recognition forward by contributing meaningfully through my research and to the community!”
Juyeong studies methotrexate (MTX), which is a common drug used to treat cancer and inflammation, but often causes harmful side effects in the gut. Certain gut bacteria can detoxify this drug by breaking it down into a small molecule called DAMPA. Until recently, DAMPA was thought to be inert, but Juyeong’s research has shown that it actively protects the gut from damage and reduces inflammation. Her study challenges the traditional view of bacterial MTX metabolites as inactive molecules. Overall, her work proposes to advance our understanding of host–microbe interactions by revealing how microbially derived drug metabolites influence host inflammation.
