Yongbeom Seo PhD

Yongbeom Seo is a former postdoctoral research fellow at Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology. He currently is a senior chemist in the Corporate Research Materials Laboratory (CRML) at 3M. His work involves inventing new fabricating techniques and working with his business colleagues to commercialize the same. During his time at the University of Illinois, he worked with Hyunjoon Kong and invented hollow polymer microparticles that contain manganese oxide nanosheets, which can convert hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen. The generated oxygen gas subsequently increases the pressure inside the particles, similar to filling a balloon with air. Seo used this technology to release anti-inflammatory drugs and chemicals such as thrombin, which promotes blood clotting, in a controlled manner over time.