News & Announcements
Title KU Research & Business Foundation and Senelix Co., Ltd. Sign Technology Transfer Agreement
Hospital KU Medicine
Date 2022-01-26
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Led by its Director Seok-Joo Choh, Korea
University Research & Business Foundation signed an agreement
to transfer technology related to the "fusion protein of albumin and
retinol binding protein (Albumin-RBP)" to Senelix Co., Ltd.
The event was held in the conference room of
Korea University College of Medicine's main building on January 21 and was attended
by Director Seok-Joo Choh from the Korea University Research &
Business Foundation, Director Byung-Joo Ham, Professor Jun-Seo Oh, and CEO Bong-Chul
Kim along with Directors Dong-Sik Kim and Hyun-Jin Cho from Senelix.
Developed by professor Jun-Seo Oh, Albumin-RBP
technology is an innovation that can prevent or treat intractable fibrotic
diseases that currently have no available treatments other than organ
transplantation. In particular, this fusion protein can be directly delivered
to astrocytes, thereby increasing the efficacy of the treatment and minimizing
adverse events.
Distributed throughout the liver, pancreas,
lungs, and kidneys, astrocytes are known to differentiate into myofibroblast when
activated and extracellular substrates, such as collagen, are excessively
expressed and accumulated to cause fibrosis. When tissue becomes fibrotic, it often
progresses to cirrhosis, liver cancer, chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer,
pulmonary fibrosis, or chronic renal failure, resulting in life-threatening loss
of organ function.
After years of research, Professor Oh
suggested the possibility of using a new fusion protein as a fibrosis treatment
by suppressing the activation of astrocytes and converting already active ones back
to the pre-activation state.
This technology transfer is significant because
it will be an innovative treatment for fibrotic diseases for which there is currently
no other treatment available and, at KRW 20 billion, it is the largest scale technology
transfer in the history of the KU Research & Business Foundation.
Professor Oh said, "I would like to thank
my school and colleagues for their support over the past 13 years. This has
been a long-term research process, and I hope that Senelix will successfully conduct
subsequent studies to develop a new bio drug that will benefit patients with
fibrosis."
Bong-Chul Kim, CEO of Senelix, said, “I
respect Professor Oh for conducting this long-term research on tissue fibrosis
since 2009, and I believe it is our mission to convert what he has done into the
tangible outcome of a new drug. There has never been a bio-medicine with a new
mechanism of action developed in South Korea, so we will do our best to develop
the first."
As a leader of the 4th Industrial Revolution, Korea University has outstanding
researchers and research assets in the bio and medical fields, as well as a
good track record of technology transfer. Established in 2021 by CEO Kim Bong-Chul,
who was the former CEO of Neuracle Science, a bio venture focusing on the
treatment of Alzheimer's disease, Senelix Co., Ltd. is specialized in developing
drugs for age-related diseases.