Institut Pasteur Korea announced that Dr. Seo Haeng-ran (UST professor), head of the advanced biomedical research team, was selected as a ‘2022 Person of Merit for Bio-field Development’ by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
Dr. Seo has produced excellent research results in the development of treatments and diagnostic kits for liver cancer and liver fibrosis and has led the way in commercialization through active research cooperation with hospitals and companies.
Over the past three years, Dr. Seo has been in charge of three projects under the Ministry of Science and Technology’s bio and medical technology development project, discovering four innovative first-in-class new drug candidates that can treat liver cancer and liver fibrosis and identifying their mechanisms of action.
Among these, the technology of two candidate substances for the treatment of liver cancer and liver fibrosis was transferred to a domestic bio venture company and linked to follow-up research and development such as (pre)clinical trials, and the technology of liver cancer-specific markers was transferred and applied to the development of a prognosis prediction kit for patients after surgery. did.
In particular, Dr. Seo’s research team increased the clinical significance of basic research by securing source technology that creates an environment similar to the human body. Breaking away from the existing two-dimensional approach that focused on tumor cells, we built a multicellular spheroid, a three-dimensional research model that can comprehensively study the interaction between tumor cells and the surrounding microenvironment, and used it for research. In addition, relevant know-how was transferred to domestic bio ventures to spread innovative technologies.
Meanwhile, Dr. Seo Haeng-ran won the ’32nd Science and Technology Excellence Paper Award’ for his research results that identified the function of the gene HYOU1, which can be a new drug target for anticancer drugs, and in 2019, he developed and transferred technology for innovative new drug candidates for liver cancer. As a result of his achievements, he received the ‘Gyeonggi-do Science and Technology Promotion Merit Award’.
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
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