= Beom Seok Park
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<Beom Seok Park> is a researcher credited with structural studies of recognition in <innate immunity>. He was first author of the 2009 study of the <Toll-like receptor 4>–<MD-2> complex with <lipopolysaccharide>; the original paper records his Department of Chemistry affiliation at KAIST.<The structural basis of lipopolysaccharide recognition by the TLR4–MD-2 complex by Beom Seok Park and others>[Author byline and affiliation; Nature 458, 1191–1195]{ref}
The <crystal structure> connected ligand recognition to assembly. Most of the <lipopolysaccharide>'s lipid chains fit inside a pocket in <MD-2>, while an exposed chain helps make an interface with another <Toll-like receptor 4>. The assembly contains two receptor-complex units. Thus the ligand helps organize contacts between <proteins>, rather than merely occupying an isolated binding pocket.<The structural basis of lipopolysaccharide recognition by the TLR4–MD-2 complex by Beom Seok Park and others>[Abstract; Figures 1–3, ligand pocket and dimerization interfaces]{ref}
A simple comparison shows why this matters. Imagine two ligands that both bind a receptor-associated pocket, but only one presents an exposed surface in the orientation required to join two receptor units. Equal pocket occupancy would not guarantee equal assembly or signaling. This is a conceptual example, not a numerical affinity measurement from the paper.
Park and collaborators' contribution was to provide a molecular account linking the arrangement of <lipopolysaccharide>, <MD-2> and <Toll-like receptor 4> to receptor activation. A <crystal structure> reveals the contacts in the captured complex; claims about response strength or behavior in an intact organism require further experimental measurements.<The structural basis of lipopolysaccharide recognition by the TLR4–MD-2 complex by Beom Seok Park and others>[Abstract, structural basis of receptor activation]{ref}
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