Dr. Koh graudated from Seoul National University Medical College in 1981. He is one of the last students who had a privilege to directly learn from Dr. Lee, Ki Young (Il-Chon). He received PhD in Neuroscience from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1989, with thesis on mechanism of glutamate receptor-mediated neuronal death. His works on ionic mechanism of excitotoxicity with his mentor Dr. Dennis Choi are regarded as seminal contribution to this field. During postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Carl Cotman’s lab at UC Irvine (1989-1991), he discovered toxicity-potentiating effect of beta amyloid, which is regareded as one of the earliest reports demonstrating beta amyloid toxicity.
Following postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. Koh resumed his clinical career, and went to Department of Neurology at Washington University in Saint Louis as a resident.  During residency, he published two Science papers, one of which is about the role of endogenous zinc in selective neuronal death after brain ischemia. This work opened up a new field of zinc neurobiology in disease.
After returning to Korea as a neurology professor at University of Ulsan College of Medicine/Asan Medical Center, he continued to work on the role of zinc in neurophysiology and pathology. His lab was selected as one of the first Creative Research Initiaves Centers in 1997. Dr. Koh published a Science paper describing protease-independent neuroprotection by human recombinant tPA in 1999. He also discovered that synaptic zinc is a major factor in amyloid plaque formation in an APP mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. As he is regarded as a leader in the field, he authored a review in Nature Reviews Neuroscience (2005) with Drs. Frederickson and Bush.
He has published more than 110 articles, which have been cited more than 9,000 times. He received Pfizer Medical Research Award (2000), and was selected as one of 20 outstanding Korean Medical Researchers (2002).  In 2005, he received “Star Faculty” award from Korean government. He continues to lead a National Research Lab for the study of brain zinc and neurological disease, and practice neurology as a clinician in Asan Medical Center.  Currently, Dr. Koh is Director of Asan Institute for Life Science.