About us

Gunsoo Kim founded Curocell in 2017 and has served as Chief Executive Officer ever since. He had 15+ years of field experience in pharmaceutical industry and biotechnology prior to establishment of Curocell.

He began his career as a researcher in charge of novel project discovery at Hanhwa Solution Central R&D center. Afterwards, he spent 10+ years at LG chem to serve as a researcher developing a novel drug for the treatment of diabetes, an inspector to revise GMP regulations and operating system, a member of the project discovery team reviewing and and introducing external R&D projects and also, a member of the R&D strategy planning team to select R&D projects, budget management and etc. At CHA Biotech, he was in charge of R&D strategy establishment and External Cooperation.

His experience in various stages of pharmaceutical industry easily enlightened him to realize the potential of CAR-T cell therapy. Ever since the establishment, he has successfully led Curocell to make history in CAR-T therapy industry and become the most advanced CAR-T specialized company in Korea.

Hyung Cheol Kim serves as the head of Curocell R&D Center. He studied microbiology at Seoul National University for his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He joined LG Chem as a research scientist in 1998 and participated in the development of diagnostic kits and first-generation biopharmaceuticals. In 2004, he moved to the University of Texas at Austin, USA, where he studied a type of ubiquitinating enzymes and gained his Ph.D degree. Then, he came back to Korea to rejoin LG Chem in 2011 and worked as the leader of a biosimilar development project until 2017. Currently, he is passionately working on CAR-T development in Curocell Inc. with his knowledge and experience that he learned over the years. The fact that CAR-T therapy can be the last option for some desperate cancer patients empowers him to get through hard work.

Jin Kyong Park has been serving as the CFO of Curocell since the early stages of the company’s founding, actively contributing to the company’s growth. With a background in managing research and development projects for an extended period within LG Chem, he possesses a deep understanding of pharmaceutical research and development. Leveraging his substantial knowledge of pharmaceutical R&D, he efficiently contributes to financial decision-making.

HJ Seo has over 20 years of experience in the field of biological drug development and new product management, with a particular focus on regulatory affairs and project management. She has extensive knowledge of the regulations and guidelines for therapeutic protein products or monoclonal antibodies, cellular and gene therapy products. She has led successful IND applications for both the Korean FDA and global authorities, as well as obtaining NDA approvals in Korea and global licenses for vaccines and biologics, including biosimilars and NME. In addition, she has demonstrated strong cross-functional leadership skills and the ability to collaborate effectively with industry partners, academia, and governmental institutions to execute complex projects. Prior to joining Curocell, HJ Seo worked at Chong Kun Dang Pharm for 8 years, where she acted as a team leader of Bio product development with expertise in regulatory affairs and strategic planning. She also served as a regulatory affairs specialist at Hanwha Chemical and LG Chemical for 4 years and 7 years, respectively.

Cho Su-Hee is Medical Director and responsible for pharmacovigilance in the clinical development center. Dr. Cho finished internal medicine residency at Gyeongsang National University Hospital and underwent specialist training in medical hematology-oncology at Samsung Medical Center. She had taken care of many cancer patients and participated in several clinical trials to make better treatment options when she worked at Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital from 2013 to 2018.

Director Seungwon Lee has over 20 years of experience in the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries, with expertise in brand marketing for hematologic malignancies and CAR-T therapies. Notably, he led the successful commercialization of Novartis’ Kymriah, the first CAR-T therapy approved for sale in Korea. Given that CAR-T therapies require a highly personalized process for each patient, close collaboration between hospitals and manufacturers is essential. After Kymriah was approved as Korea’s first CAR-T therapy, Director Lee played a key role in establishing swift treatment processes through collaboration with major hospitals, significantly improving treatment accessibility for patients with terminal blood cancer patients.

Before joining Curocell, Director Lee worked at Novartis Korea for 15 years, progressing from Medical Representative to Cell Therapy Network Manager and eventually serving as Hematology Product Manager. He also gained experience in sales at Hanmi Pharmaceutical, participating in sales for general hospitals.

Mr. Jeon is a Director of quality and manufacturing in Curocell and former QA and Production manager in LG Chem, Life Sciences business. He has over 16 years of pharmaceutical manufacturing and quality assurance experience. His expertise covers both managerial and technical roles.

Jungkun KIM is the director of facilities and engineering with over 17 years of experience in project management, engineering, and various inspection & audit mainly in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries such as LG chem, KBIO, Samsung biologics, Hanmi Pharm. 

Mr. Kim has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Jeonbuk National University, Korea. He had successfully led projects of biotech manufacturing facilities from design for the process, utilities, and facilities for procurement and construction management. He also has experience in assuring clean room environment and perform commissioning and qualification for facility equipment. 

Currently, he is responsible for project management, GMP utility management, facility inspection, and EHS at Curocell.

Youngsam Park is an analytical method development specialist at Curocell.

Through more than 16 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry including analyzing small molecules, proteins, and cell therapy. He has established the analytical methodology required during the process of CAR-T therapy development. He also has experience in developing in-vitro assays, mass spectrometer analysis, and most recently, cell analysis utilizing cutting-edge technologies including ddPCR and flow cytometry.

Dr. LEE led the discovery of CRC01 at KAIST under the supervision of Chan Hyuk Kim and is currently responsible for developing novel cellular therapeutics at Curocell. He earned his Ph.D. in Cancer immunology from Korea University and his Bachelor in Bioengineering from Sungkyunkwan University. During his postdoctoral fellowship, he not only discovered a novel technique for tuning the function of CAR-T, which formed the basis of CRC01 but also has extensive experience engineering T cells for cancer immunotherapy.