This technology is a composition for preventing and treating sarcopenia and muscle atrophy, and for promoting muscle growth, using an extract of the perennial herb Ajuga multiflora (Lamiaceae) as an active ingredient. It is formulated in three forms: pharmaceutical compositions, health functional foods, and feed compositions. The extract activates protein synthesis signaling in myotube cells, increasing muscle fiber thickness and fusion.
Muscle mass is maintained by the balance between protein synthesis and degradation. When degradation exceeds synthesis due to aging, prolonged muscle disuse, or diseases like cancer and diabetes, muscle strength declines, increasing the risk of falls, fractures, and metabolic disorders. While natural products like goldthread, ginseng, and black ginseng have been studied for inhibiting muscle atrophy, Ajuga multiflora has traditionally been used only for inflammatory diseases or bruises, with its effects on preventing muscle atrophy or promoting skeletal muscle cell differentiation and hypertrophy previously unknown.
This technology utilizes an alcohol extract of Ajuga multiflora to increase the expression of mTOR, p70S6K, and the muscle contractile protein MHC in myotube cells, while also increasing myotube diameter and the fusion index. It addresses various types of muscle atrophy, including age-related sarcopenia, disuse atrophy, denervation-induced atrophy, cachexia, and drug-induced atrophy. It can be applied to health functional foods for maintaining muscle strength in the elderly, supplements for patients with muscle loss due to long-term hospitalization or bed rest, and feed for pets and livestock, allowing for the development of pharmaceutical, food, and feed product lines from a single edible plant extract.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for the development of methods to identify compound combinations with equivalent efficacy representing the overall activity of natural products.
This technology is a pharmaceutical composition and a food composition for prevention and improvement that uses 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF), a furan-based small molecule compound, or its salts as an active ingredient to prevent and treat valvular disease and aortic valve stenosis. 5-HMF reduces the expression of osteogenesis-related calcification markers in valvular interstitial cells.
Aortic valve stenosis is one of the three most common cardiovascular diseases in the elderly, but because no target proteins or drugs have been identified to prevent valve calcification, valve replacement surgery has been the only treatment. Replacement surgery places a heavy burden on elderly patients, is costly, and carries risks of stroke, paravalvular leakage, and durability issues. Clinical trials attempting to apply lipid-lowering agents or osteoporosis drugs to valve stenosis have relied on indirect mechanisms and have shown no effect in some cases. 5-HMF was previously known only for its antioxidant and anticancer properties, with its effects on valve calcification remaining unknown.
This technology utilizes the fact that 5-HMF inhibits BMP2, a key signal that transforms valvular interstitial cells into osteoblast-like cells, and the transcription factor RUNX2, thereby breaking the vicious cycle where calcification triggers further calcification. It can be administered in a daily range of 0.001 to 10 g and can be combined with other calcification inhibitors. It can be applied as a treatment to delay progression in early-stage valve calcification patients, as an alternative drug therapy for high-risk elderly patients who cannot undergo surgery, and as a health supplement for the elderly. As a small molecule compound with a simple structure that is also found in food, it lowers the burden of raw material procurement and formulation while directly blocking valve ossification signals.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for the discovery of biomarkers and therapeutic targets to inhibit intractable aortic valve calcification using multi-omics data-based deep learning.
This technology involves a method for producing seaweed snacks by applying a liquid adhesive mixture of oligosaccharides, soy sauce, and stevia to a sheet of seaweed, layering another sheet on top, and pressing them together with a 160–190°C heat press for 2–10 seconds. This process creates a crispy snack through brief heat-pressing, eliminating the need for deep-frying or lengthy drying.
Traditional seaweed snacks (gim-bugak) require coating with glutinous rice paste, sun-drying for half a day to several days, and deep-frying. This makes them susceptible to spoilage depending on the weather, and even using food dehydrators takes 3–5 hours at 70°C, hindering mass production. Furthermore, deep-frying increases fat and saturated fat intake, poses risks of burns and fires during production, and leads to poor shelf life due to oil rancidity.
This technology uses a mixture of oligosaccharides (such as isomalto-oligosaccharides or fructo-oligosaccharides), soy sauce, and stevia in a weight ratio of 1 : 0.2–0.8 : 0.001–0.1. Applying only 0.3–0.8 g per 20 cm² of seaweed provides both adhesion and seasoning. Nuts like sesame seeds, peanuts, almonds, walnuts, cashews, or pistachios can also be inserted between the sheets. By avoiding sugar or high-fructose corn syrup, the snack is lower in calories. Suitable for export snacks, convenience store appetizers, and low-fat children's snacks, this method significantly increases production speed and ensures a long-lasting, light, and crispy texture without the risk of oil rancidity.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Education for the localization of seaweed snack intermediate materials.
This technology features novel thienopyrimidine derivatives—or their salts—incorporating an anilino group at the 2-position and an alkyl or phenyl amino group at the 4-position of a thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidine scaffold, as well as compositions for LRRK2 inhibition using these as active ingredients. These derivatives inhibit LRRK2 kinase activity and are used for the prevention and treatment of LRRK2-related diseases, including Parkinson's disease.
Current Parkinson's treatments like L-dopa, dopamine receptor agonists, and anticholinergics only manage symptoms rather than addressing the root cause, requiring continuous use. Long-term L-dopa use leads to reduced efficacy and dyskinesia, while anticholinergics cause autonomic and psychiatric side effects, making them difficult to use in elderly patients. Surgical options like deep brain stimulation are invasive and costly, and while some LRRK2 inhibitors have been reported, none have reached clinical application.
This technology utilizes derivatives of Formula 1, combining R1–R4 substituents, NH or N-methyl for X, and carbonyl, amide, or reverse-amide linkers to inhibit abnormal LRRK2 kinase activity. It presents 18 specific compounds, including N-benzyl benzamide derivatives, and formulates pharmaceutical compositions at concentrations of 4–80 mg/kg. Applications extend beyond Parkinson's, dementia, and L-dopa-induced dyskinesia to include LRRK2-linked inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn's and ulcerative colitis, as well as various cancers. As a disease-modifying therapy targeting the underlying mechanism, it offers an alternative to dopamine replacement by blocking LRRK2 overactivity, which leads to α-synuclein aggregation and neuronal death.
This invention was developed with support from the Meta-Receptome Control Research Center of the Ministry of Science and ICT.
This technology involves protein variants in which the 19th and 32nd amino acids of the amyloid-beta 42 sequence are replaced with the same type of polar uncharged amino acids—asparagine, glutamine, serine, or threonine—as well as the polynucleotides and vectors that encode them. Treating cells with these variants can control amyloid-beta fibrillation.
Amyloid-beta self-assembles into long, beta-sheet-structured fibrils, acting as a key pathology in Alzheimer's disease. While antibody therapies to remove fibrillar amyloid-beta have been introduced, they have not met expectations because monomers, intermediates, and fibrils coexist in vivo, and assembling molecules promote each other's fibrillation. Attempts to correct the Swedish mutation using CRISPR have also had limited application, as the disease can still occur with normal levels of amyloid-beta.
This technology uses point mutations designed based on protein structure and dynamics analysis to slow the rate of fibril formation. Depending on the need, residues 34 and 42 can also be substituted with the same amino acids to form variants of SEQ ID NOs 2–8. When mixed with wild-type amyloid-beta, these variants interact to delay fibrillation and reduce the cytotoxicity caused by fibrils in neuroblastoma cells. Applicable to protein-based Alzheimer's therapeutics, gene therapy vectors for inhibiting amyloid aggregation, and standard proteins for studying aggregation mechanisms, this approach intervenes in the fibril growth process itself to slow the aggregation of wild-type proteins, rather than simply chasing and removing existing fibrils.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for research on kinetic control based on quantitative analysis of amyloid protein aggregation in complex systems.
This technology provides a pharmaceutical composition for the prevention and treatment of prion diseases, a health functional food for prevention and mitigation, and a feed composition for livestock, all containing furanodienone derived from the medicinal herb Curcuma zedoaria. Furanodienone prevents the misfolding and aggregation of normal prion proteins, thereby inhibiting the increase of pathogenic scrapie prions.
Prion diseases are fatal conditions where misfolded scrapie prion proteins form aggregates that kill neurons and cause the brain to degenerate into a sponge-like state. Examples include bovine spongiform encephalopathy and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, with links also reported to Alzheimer's disease. However, while quinacrine showed promise in vitro, it proved ineffective in patients and caused liver failure, and pentosan polysulfate has shown only limited efficacy, leaving a lack of viable treatment options.
This technology leverages the fact that furanodienone, a component of Curcuma zedoaria traditionally used to treat blood stasis, reduces intracellular scrapie prion levels and inhibits protein aggregation. It targets Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, fatal familial insomnia, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome, and Alzheimer's disease, as well as scrapie in sheep and goats, and chronic wasting disease in deer, elk, and reindeer. Applicable to human prion disease and protein-aggregation dementia treatments, livestock feed for disease prevention, and neuroprotective health supplements, it offers a path to block prion spread in both humans and animals using a plant-derived compound, overcoming the efficacy and toxicity issues of previous candidates.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for research on treating prion diseases through the enhancement of plasmin activity.
This technology features an anti-obesity functional food and pharmaceutical composition for preventing and treating obesity, using fruit peel extracts—a 3:7 to 5:5 weight ratio blend of Namjinhae (a citrus hybrid) and oriental melon peel—as the active ingredient. This mixed extract inhibits lipid production in fat cells, thereby suppressing fat accumulation.
Obesity is a condition that leads to metabolic diseases such as hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes. While obesity rates in Korea are steadily rising, existing anti-obesity materials derived from microbial culture surfactants have faced challenges with complex manufacturing processes and poor shelf stability. Natural alternatives like red ginseng and omija are expensive, making it difficult to maintain price competitiveness. Meanwhile, watermelon, oriental melon, and Namjinhae peels are mostly discarded as waste due to their bitter taste and tough texture.
This technology utilizes ethanol extraction on leftover peels, simplifying raw material sourcing and processing. By blending Namjinhae and oriental melon peels in a specific ratio, it achieves significant lipid-inhibiting effects even in small quantities. Applicable to health functional foods for body fat management, obesity treatment supplements, and high-value-added projects for fruit processing byproducts, it allows for the creation of fat-suppressing products without expensive ingredients like red ginseng, while repurposing discarded fruit peels as cost-effective raw materials.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for the development of natural food materials to improve sarcopenic metabolic obesity in the elderly through a complex parabiotic and postbiotic utilization system.
This technology is a seaweed processing method that softens seaweed such as kelp, wakame, and ecklonia cava by blanching, firms the tissue by soaking it in a calcium solution, and sterilizes it through acid and heat treatment. Seaweed processed in this way maintains its original shape and texture while remaining shelf-stable at room temperature for an extended period.
With the rise of single-person households, the market for home meal replacements is growing, and demand for processed seaweed products is increasing globally. However, raw seaweed spoils easily at room temperature and loses its texture. Consequently, most seaweed is converted into powder or paste, or freeze-dried and rehydrated. Freeze-dried products struggle to replicate the original chewiness, while paste processing increases production steps and costs.
This technology involves blanching seaweed in a softening solution—such as acetic acid, sodium bicarbonate, or phosphate—at 90–120°C to soften tough tissues. It is then soaked in a 0.1–3.0 wt% calcium solution (e.g., calcium lactate or calcium chloride) for 60–120 minutes to restore texture, followed by acid immersion (e.g., citric or lactic acid) and sterilization via a 90–110°C water bath. Applicable to ready-to-eat seaweed salads, retort pouches, canned goods, and export-grade pickled products, it allows for immediate consumption without rehydration while maintaining a fresh, crisp texture.
This technology is a sweet potato storage system consisting of airtight mobile cabins for storing sweet potatoes and a hot/cold air supply unit that provides warm or cool air to these cabins. Cabins undergoing curing are connected to the warm air supply, while those that have finished curing and require heat dissipation are connected to the cool air supply, allowing air to be distributed according to the specific process stage.
Immediately after harvest, sweet potatoes must be cured for 3 to 5 days at 30–33°C and 90–95% relative humidity to form a cork layer over wounds, which improves storability. However, quality often suffers because they are moved to storage without sufficient heat dissipation. The curing, heat dissipation, and intake processes are labor-intensive, and with the growing shortage of rural labor, this has become a challenge. Furthermore, stacking them in plastic crates often leads to crushed sweet potatoes at the bottom and poor ventilation, reducing marketability.
This technology forms a single refrigeration cycle with a condenser and evaporator separated by a refrigerant compressor and expansion valve. It simultaneously generates warm air from the condenser's heat and cool air from the evaporator's cooling effect, distributing them to multiple supply units. The cabins are equipped with casters for mobility and feature insulated sidewalls, requiring only a change in the supply connection to match the process stage. Applicable to post-harvest processing facilities at sweet potato distribution centers, agricultural cooperative storage, and facilities for root vegetables like potatoes and onions that require curing, this system utilizes waste condensation heat for curing, saving energy and equipment costs while allowing a small staff to manage multiple cabins simultaneously.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Education's project for developing photoautotrophic systems for the production of disease-free sweet potato seedlings.
This technology provides pharmaceutical compositions for the prevention and treatment of degenerative brain diseases, as well as health functional food compositions for prevention and improvement, containing a bis-isoxazole compound represented by Formula 1 or its salts as an active ingredient. This compound protects impaired neurons by activating mitochondria in neurons, neuroglia, and microglia.
Parkinson's disease is characterized by the loss of dopamine neurons in the midbrain, leading to motor impairments such as muscle stiffness and tremors. While oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and chronic neuroinflammation are cited as causes, the exact pathogenesis remains unknown. Existing treatments focus on replenishing dopamine precursors or inhibiting dopamine-degrading enzymes to increase dopamine levels; however, these are limited by side effects such as movement dysregulation, sweating, metabolic issues, and mood swings when dopamine levels become excessive.
Instead of directly regulating dopamine levels, this technology works by boosting mitochondrial activity in neurons, repairing damaged mitochondria, and inhibiting the phosphorylation of p38—a stress signaling protein—to protect neurons. The active ingredient can be used in various salt forms, including hydrochloride, sulfate, methanesulfonate, and sodium salts. It can be applied to treatments for mitochondrial dysfunction-related Parkinson's, drugs to slow Alzheimer's progression, and health supplements for brain health in middle-aged and older adults, allowing for the direct targeting of impaired neuronal energy metabolism—a root cause of these diseases—while avoiding the motor and emotional side effects associated with dopamine excess.
This invention was developed with support from the Meta-Receptome Control Research Center, funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT.
This technology provides pharmaceutical and health food compositions for preventing and treating keratitis, using exosomes secreted by EGF-treated M1 or M2a macrophages as the active ingredient. It also includes a method for inhibiting angiogenesis by applying these exosomes to corneal endothelial cells. Exosomes released by macrophages, whose inflammation has been mitigated by EGF, suppress both inflammation and neovascularization in surrounding corneal endothelial cells.
The cornea is a transparent, avascular tissue exposed to the environment, making it vulnerable to trauma and scratches. Severe damage can lead to keratitis and corneal neovascularization, threatening vision. While EGF has been used in ophthalmology for corneal epithelial regeneration and sensory nerve recovery, its role in mediating anti-inflammatory and anti-angiogenic effects between deep-seated macrophages and corneal endothelial cells had not been previously established.
This technology is based on the finding that EGF reduces IL-1β and IL-6 expression in M1 macrophages, and that their exosomes lower the expression of VCAM-1, ICAM-1, VEGF, MMP-2, MMP-9, and PDGF in corneal endothelial cells. Furthermore, exosomes from EGF-treated M2a macrophages promote both anti-inflammatory effects and cell proliferation in damaged corneal endothelial cells. The formulation can be developed as eye drops, ophthalmic ointments, ocular inserts, or injections. Applicable to treatments for infectious and non-infectious keratitis, as an adjunct for inhibiting neovascularization after corneal transplantation, and for managing corneal damage in long-term contact lens wearers, this approach delivers exosomes rather than cells to simultaneously manage corneal inflammation and vascular infiltration while aiding the recovery of damaged endothelial cells.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for strategies to treat ocular surface immune inflammation using AITR stimulation technology in immune cells.
This technology features a pharmaceutical composition for cancer prevention and treatment, as well as a health functional food composition for cancer prevention and improvement, using extracellular vesicles—specifically nanovesicles with an average diameter of 70–200 nm—derived from perilla leaves as the active ingredient. These nanovesicles selectively inhibit the proliferation of breast and cervical cancer cells without showing toxicity to normal cells.
Conventional chemotherapy agents work by blocking DNA replication or cell division, which damages normal cells and causes side effects such as nausea, hair loss, and skin inflammation. While attempts have been made to reduce these issues by delivering drugs via synthetic nanovesicles or animal-derived exosomes, they face significant challenges regarding safety and mass production costs. Furthermore, obtaining plant nanovesicles through ultracentrifugation often results in low yields and impurities, making it difficult to ensure the desired activity and in vivo safety.
This technology increases purity by ultrafiltering perilla leaf juice and then isolating only the nanovesicles using size-exclusion chromatography. The purified vesicles inhibit the proliferation of MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cells, as well as HeLa cervical cancer cells. Being plant-derived, they offer high biocompatibility, stability in bodily fluids, and cell permeability. They can be formulated into granules, tablets, capsules, syrups, injections, or even jelly and bar-type foods. Applicable to the development of adjuvant therapies for women's cancers, health supplements for use during chemotherapy, and plant exosome-based drug delivery systems, this technology enables cost-effective mass production from common perilla leaves while targeting specific cancer cells without damaging healthy ones.
This technology involves a pharmaceutical and food composition for enhancing immune function, using a complex extract of the traditional medicinal herbs Daphne genkwa and Euphorbia kansui as active ingredients, mixed in a ratio of 67 to 150 parts by weight of Euphorbia kansui per 100 parts by weight of Daphne genkwa. Combining these two herbs significantly increases immune-boosting effects compared to using either alone.
As modern lifestyles and environmental pollution weaken immune systems, people are increasingly vulnerable to infectious diseases like the flu and life-threatening conditions such as cancer. While the immunomodulatory drug market is growing rapidly, research into immune boosters remains in its early stages, leaving a shortage of safe, natural materials capable of significantly enhancing immune function.
This technology extracts Daphne genkwa stems/roots and Euphorbia kansui roots using water, C1-C4 alcohols, or a mixture thereof. By limiting the mixing ratio to a specific range, it triggers a synergistic effect that regulates natural killer (NK) cell immune function. Applicable to seasonal health supplements, immune boosters for the elderly or recovering patients, and herbal medicines, this technology provides a differentiated ingredient that delivers stronger NK cell activation than single-herb products.
This technology involves genome editing by introducing a guide RNA targeting the OsOr gene (SEQ ID NO: 2) and a Cas endonuclease into rice cells, either as a vector or a ribonucleoprotein complex, followed by plant regeneration. The resulting rice and seeds exhibit higher carotenoid levels and greater resistance to oxidative stress compared to wild-type rice.
Carotenoids are photosynthetic accessory pigments, provitamin A sources, and antioxidants that protect cells from reactive oxygen species, yet rice endosperm naturally produces almost none. Previous methods, such as introducing maize PSY and bacterial CrtI (like Golden Rice 2) or overexpressing the Or gene, relied on transgenic modification, which requires costly and time-consuming GMO safety assessments. Furthermore, overexpressing biosynthetic genes, as seen in tomatoes, can lead to growth abnormalities like dwarfism.
This technology uses CRISPR/Cas9 to edit the OsOr gene—which encodes a DnaJ-family chaperone protein that regulates plastid development—to increase carotenoid accumulation and enhance tolerance to environmental stresses like oxidation and salinity without using foreign biosynthetic genes. The induced mutations are indistinguishable from natural variations, allowing them to be treated as non-GMO breeding materials. This approach enables the development of provitamin A-fortified rice, salt-tolerant varieties for reclaimed land, and antioxidant-rich rice for processing, securing both nutritional enhancement and cultivation stability through a single gene-editing event.
This invention was developed with support from the Rural Development Administration for the development and efficiency improvement of HDR gene-editing technology in rice.
This technology involves editing the rice genome by introducing a guide RNA that recognizes a specific target sequence of the OsAAP2 amino acid transporter gene and a Cas endonuclease into rice cells, either as a vector or a ribonucleoprotein complex, followed by regeneration of the cells. The resulting edited rice and its seeds exhibit physicochemical starch properties distinct from those of the wild type.
As rice is a staple food for nearly half the world's population, improving starch quality—such as amylose content and gelatinization temperature, which determine taste and appearance—has become as important as increasing yield. While the roles of OsAAP3, OsAAP5, and OsAAP6 in yield and protein content have been reported, OsAAP2 has not been utilized for quality improvement. Furthermore, traditional GMO methods involving foreign gene insertion require significant time and cost for safety and environmental impact assessments.
This technology uses a CRISPR/Cas9 system targeting one of two sites (SEQ ID NO: 2 or 3) to induce mutations in OsAAP2. It also allows for the direct introduction of a ribonucleoprotein complex to avoid leaving behind foreign DNA, making the resulting mutations indistinguishable from natural ones. This approach can be applied to breeding new rice varieties with improved taste, customizing starch properties for processed rice, and securing genetic resources for rice quality research. It enables the rapid development of rice lines with enhanced taste and starch quality while bypassing the regulatory burdens associated with GMOs.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for the functional analysis of genes regulating rice seed dormancy and pre-harvest sprouting resistance using the CRISPR/Cas9 system.
