A South Korean scientist has played a leading role in the development of the world's first vaccine for the leading cause of cervical cancer, approved this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (or FDA).

A Kentucky newspaper reported Friday that the U.S. FDA on Thursday licensed the vaccine, Gardasil, which prevents infection by four strains of the human papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted disease and cause for cervical cancer in women.

Researchers at the University of Louisville's James Graham Brown Cancer Center, including Kim Shin-je, 49, had to wait more than a decade until finally winning approval from the FDA. The newspaper said...Gardasil was manufactured by Merck & Co., for use by girls and women ages 9 to 26.

After graduating from Korea University, Kim studied bacteriology, virology and microbiology at Lyon University and the Pasteur Institute in Paris.