Seoul National University Bundang Hospital announced on August 26 that it has been selected for the Ministry of Health and Welfare's 2026 Research-Centered Hospital Korea-U.S. Innovation R&D project. The hospital will collaborate with leading research institutions, including Harvard Medical School and UC San Diego, to develop an advanced treatment platform for pancreatic cancer.
The project will be led by Professor Lee Jong-chan from the Department of Gastroenterology. It will receive a total of 7 billion won in research funding over a period of 2 years and 6 months, starting from July 2026 to December 2028.
The Korea-U.S. Innovation R&D project is a national research and development initiative supported by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, aimed at securing advanced technologies through joint research between domestic research-centered hospitals and world-class research institutions and universities in the United States. Top researchers from Korea and the U.S. in the fields of pancreatic cancer and nanomedicine are participating in this study.
In South Korea, teams from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Seoul National University, the Department of Biotechnology at Konkuk University led by Professors Jeon Bong-hyun and Kim Dong-eun, and the Department of Biological Sciences at KAIST led by Professor Kang Seok-jo are involved. In the U.S., teams from Harvard Medical School, including Professors Kang Ho-man, Satoshi Kashiwagi, and Dai Fukumura, as well as Professor Michael Bouvet from UC San Diego, are collaborating. South Korean companies, including Fine Medics Co., Ltd. and JNP Medi, are also participating, establishing a collaborative framework that encompasses hospitals, universities, and industries both domestically and internationally.
The core of the research involves developing 'chiral gold nanoparticles' that optimally respond to near-infrared (NIR-II) light and a 'photoprobe device' for their injection, creating a treatment platform that improves the tumor microenvironment (TME). Chiral structures are asymmetric and do not overlap like mirror images. They are gaining attention as nanomedicine materials due to their excellent interaction with light.
The gold nanoparticles used by the research team are optimized for chiral structures and plasmonic properties, offering higher responsiveness and precision to light than conventional gold nanoparticles. Plasmonic effects occur when light interacts with free electrons on the surface of metal nanoparticles. This technology allows for precise imaging of minute cancer tissues or direct destruction of cancer cells using light energy.
The research team aims to develop a treatment platform targeting pancreatic cancer, which is difficult to treat and access, and ultimately expand it to various solid tumors. Pancreatic cancer is known for its challenging early detection and limited treatment efficacy.
Professor Lee Jong-chan stated, "The selection for this project is a recognition of our accumulated research capabilities in pancreatic cancer and nanomedicine on an international level. We will collaborate with world-class research institutions to create treatment methods that will genuinely benefit pancreatic cancer patients."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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