This technology involves extracting protein from Chikso, a native Korean cattle breed distinguished from Hanwoo by single nucleotide polymorphisms, and hydrolyzing it with alkaline enzymes. The resulting peptide extract is fractionated using size-exclusion chromatography to produce peptides with both antihypertensive and antioxidant activities. These fractions are used in pharmaceutical compositions for preventing and treating hypertension, as well as in health functional food ingredients.
While commercial ACE inhibitors like captopril and enalapril are primary treatments for hypertension, they are associated with side effects such as cough, hypotension, headaches, and kidney damage. Furthermore, concerns regarding the safety of synthetic antioxidants have increased the demand for natural alternatives. Meanwhile, Chikso is at risk of extinction because farmers avoid raising them due to slow growth and long maturation periods, which limit profitability. Research into bioactive peptides derived from Chikso meat has been insufficient.
This technology involves hydrolyzing Chikso protein at 60°C for 2 hours, drying it at 55°C for 24 hours to obtain a peptide extract under 10kDa, and isolating highly active peptides by selecting the 5th to 8th fractions from 5mL chromatography eluates. These peptides simultaneously inhibit ACE, reducing angiotensin II production, and provide free radical scavenging effects. Applicable to blood pressure management supplements, natural antihypertensive adjuncts, and premium livestock byproducts, this technology provides food-derived, low-side-effect blood pressure regulation materials while adding new economic value to the endangered Chikso breed.
This invention was developed with support from the Rural Development Administration's project for developing value-added livestock technology from native cattle to meet diverse consumer demands.
This technology features a pharmaceutical composition using Dichotomine B as an active ingredient to prevent, improve, and treat muscle atrophy and sarcopenia. It also includes food and pet/livestock feed compositions containing the same ingredient.
Skeletal muscle mass decreases by approximately 8% every decade starting at age 40, and by 15% in one's 70s. Muscle atrophy caused by aging, disuse, or conditions like cancer, diabetes, and sepsis significantly lowers quality of life by increasing the risk of falls, fractures, and metabolic diseases. While atrophy is driven by a decline in the mTOR protein synthesis pathway and an increase in degradation factors like MAFbx and MuRF1, successful development of synthetic drugs targeting these pathways has been extremely rare.
This technology leverages the ability of Dichotomine B—previously identified as a neuroinflammation regulator—to increase muscle fiber thickness in myotubes and enhance muscle mass and strength in animal models. It targets conditions such as disuse atrophy, denervation-induced atrophy, cachexia, drug-induced or nutritional deficiency-induced atrophy, and muscular dystrophy. It can be formulated into capsules, tablets, powders, liquids, jellies, or bars. Applicable as a treatment for geriatric sarcopenia, a preventative supplement for long-term bedridden or casted patients, and a functional feed for aging pets, this synthetically mass-producible compound helps slow muscle loss and accelerate strength recovery.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for the development of a method for identifying compound combinations with equivalent efficacy representing the overall activity of natural products.
This technology features the Lactobacillus brevis NE428 strain, isolated and identified from kimchi and deposited as KCTC15727BP, as well as pharmaceutical compositions for preventing or treating Graves' disease and health functional foods for prevention and improvement containing this strain as an active ingredient.
Graves' disease is an autoimmune disorder where autoantibodies overstimulate the thyroid. Antithyroid drugs require 6 months to 2 years of treatment, have a 40–50% relapse rate upon discontinuation, and carry risks of agranulocytosis, liver disease, and fatal leukopenia. Radioactive iodine therapy necessitates lifelong thyroid hormone replacement and is not effective for all patients, while surgery requires burdensome pre-operative medication management.
This technology leverages the ability of the NE428 strain to lower elevated blood thyroid hormone levels and reduce thyroid enlargement caused by Graves' disease. The strain can be formulated as live cells, cell lysates, cultures, cell-free culture supernatants, or various extracts. As a lactic acid bacterium from traditional fermented food, it offers superior long-term safety. It can be applied as an adjuvant for hyperthyroidism, in combination therapy to reduce antithyroid drug dosage, or in thyroid health probiotic products, providing a new management tool to alleviate excessive thyroid function without the risks of leukopenia or liver damage associated with long-term medication.
This technology is a combined control method that involves first irradiating food surfaces or food-contact surfaces contaminated with norovirus with UV-C at 180–300 mJ/cm² for 1–3 minutes, followed by treatment with 70–80 ppm peroxyacetic acid (PAA).
Norovirus is highly infectious even in small amounts and frequently causes outbreaks. However, existing food sanitation treatments are primarily focused on inactivating bacteria, making them less effective against viruses that can remain infectious on food surfaces for days. Chlorine-based disinfectants leave toxic residues and cause equipment corrosion, while physical treatments like heating alter texture and flavor, rendering them unsuitable for fresh-cut produce. Previous research on combined UV-C and PAA treatments was designed for wastewater and required over 30 minutes of processing, making it incompatible with food.
This technology uses UV-C at a wavelength of 200–280 nm (ideally 260 nm) to first damage the viral genetic material, followed by a short post-treatment with PAA at 75 ppm—well within the FDA and KFDA limit of 80 ppm—to achieve a synergistic effect. The process takes only a few minutes and does not compromise the firmness or quality of the food. It can be applied to washing lines for fresh-cut produce like salads and pre-cut vegetables, disinfection of kitchen utensils and workstations in cafeterias, and pre-packaging processes for fruit. This allows for a significant reduction in norovirus in a short time without heat, lowering the risk of mass food poisoning while remaining within regulatory limits.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for the development of new technologies for tracking and controlling norovirus in food for field application.
This technology is a reagent composition containing daidzein derived from black soybean extract, which lowers the estrogen receptor (ER) to progesterone receptor (PR) expression ratio (ER/PR) in cervical epithelial cells by inhibiting ER expression and promoting PR expression. The black soybean extract is obtained through a standardized process involving hexane defatting, ethanol heating, and weak acid hydrolysis.
As childbirth approaches, progesterone function ceases and estrogen levels rise, leading to cervical ripening. Since an imbalance in cervical ER and PR can lead to preterm birth, maintaining this balance is crucial for pregnancy. While the effects of black soybean isoflavones on reproductive health issues like menopause, infertility, and menstrual pain have been reported, their efficacy in preventing preterm birth has not been studied, and their impact on pregnancy has remained a subject of debate.
This technology obtains a daidzein-rich extract by stirring powdered black soybeans in n-hexane, filtering under reduced pressure to remove fat, washing and drying, then heating in an aqueous ethanol solution at 50–70℃ for 1–3 hours, followed by the addition of a weak acid solution (pH 5.5–6.5) and heating at 70–90℃ for 12–20 hours. This daidzein lowers the ER/PR ratio more effectively than other isoflavones like genistein. It can be applied to validating new drug candidates for preterm birth prevention, hormone receptor research based on cervical cells, and developing functional materials for pregnant women, providing a standardized active ingredient from black soybeans that directly targets hormone receptor balance related to preterm birth.
This technology features novel compounds or their salts—based on a 1,1-dioxo-1,2-benzisothiazole scaffold with various substituted aromatic rings attached at the 3-position via linkers such as oxygen, amine, hydrazine, or piperazine—as active ingredients in pharmaceutical compositions for inhibiting platelet aggregation and preventing or treating thrombotic diseases. It also includes food compositions containing the same compounds.
Platelet aggregation is a primary cause of cardiovascular diseases such as stroke, coronary artery disease, and pulmonary embolism. However, existing GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors, which work by competitively blocking fibrinogen binding, are associated with serious side effects like intracranial hemorrhage, retroperitoneal hemorrhage, and thrombocytopenia. Many elderly patients are often unable to be prescribed antiplatelet agents due to diagnostic uncertainty, creating a need for a new, effective, and safer antiplatelet mechanism.
This technology focuses on the process where the cytoskeletal protein talin binds to the GPIIIa tail to activate GPIIb/IIIa. By using benzisothiazole derivatives as bioisostere scaffolds to inhibit this activation, it prevents platelet aggregation. Substituents include methyl, t-butyl, trifluoromethyl, methoxy, bromo, chloro, and fluoro groups, with over 30 specific compounds presented, including phenoxy, benzylamino, and thiazolidinedione derivatives. Applicable to acute coronary syndrome treatments, stroke and deep vein thrombosis prevention, and blood circulation health supplements, this technology offers a new antiplatelet drug candidate that reduces the risk of bleeding side effects by blocking aggregation at the activation signaling stage, unlike existing drugs that directly block fibrinogen binding.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for the discovery and efficacy validation of a new mechanism-based antiplatelet agent targeting Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inside-out signaling.
This technology provides a manufacturing method for obtaining exosome-like vesicles with a diameter of 100–500 nm by centrifuging spinach juice in two stages and purifying it through ultrafiltration and size-exclusion chromatography, as well as immune-enhancing cosmetic and food compositions containing these vesicles.
Patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiation for cancer often experience immune dysfunction due to hematopoietic stem cell damage and a subsequent reduction in immune cells. Furthermore, even healthy individuals are increasingly suffering from weakened immunity due to environmental factors and lifestyle habits. While various plant extracts have been used for immune enhancement, there remains a lack of natural ingredients that offer high efficacy with minimal side effects.
This technology filters out impurities by centrifuging juice at 500–15,000×g for the first stage and 15,000–25,000×g for the second stage at 2–5℃ for 40–80 minutes. It then isolates vesicles using 50–150 kDa cutoff ultrafiltration and size-exclusion chromatography, achieving a recovery level of 10⁷–10¹³ particles/mL. These vesicles stimulate protein receptors to activate macrophages and boost immune responses. Applicable to immune-boosting foods for cancer patients, functional immune beverages, and skin-strengthening cosmetics, this process allows for the mass production of immune-active nanovesicles from common edible vegetables as a reliable natural immune-enhancing raw material.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for the Food-Derived Extracellular Vesicle Laboratory.
This technology enhances drought stress resistance by transforming and overexpressing the CaADBZ1 bZIP transcription factor protein isolated from pepper, its encoding gene, and a recombinant vector containing this gene in plants. It also includes compositions, kits, and transgenic plants for enhancing resistance that utilize these proteins, genes, and vectors as active ingredients.
As global warming and desertification exacerbate water shortages, drought has hindered normal crop growth and significantly reduced grain yields. While plants respond to drought by closing stomata and accumulating abscisic acid (ABA), the ABA signaling pathway has not been fully elucidated, and research on drought-tolerance genes and their application in transgenic crops remains limited.
This technology is based on findings that silencing CaADBZ1 in pepper reduces ABA sensitivity and weakens drought resistance, while overexpressing this gene in Arabidopsis increases ABA sensitivity and significantly improves drought tolerance. Drought-tolerant plants can be created in two steps: inserting the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 into a vector and transforming it for overexpression. This can be applied to developing drought-tolerant pepper varieties, breeding transgenic crops for arid regions, and improving plants for desert greening, enabling the creation of crops that maintain yields with less water and securing genetic resources for precisely regulating ABA responsiveness.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for research on identifying the role of post-translational modification regulatory proteins in stomatal movement in pepper and utilizing them for stress tolerance.
This technology is a pharmaceutical composition for preventing and treating obesity, using extracellular vesicles with an average diameter of 50–300 nm isolated and purified from spinach as the active ingredient. These vesicles are also provided in food compositions, such as beverages and food additives, and as quasi-drug compositions in the form of granules, tablets, and capsules.
Obesity increases the risk of metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and insulin resistance. However, existing anti-obesity drugs targeting appetite regulation mechanisms have been associated with issues like cardiovascular side effects, increased suicide risk, and drug dependency. Due to insufficient efficacy and high resistance, long-term drug therapy has struggled to overcome obesity. While plant-derived extracellular vesicles offer many advantages, their biological functions have not been systematically studied.
This technology uses ultrafiltration and size-exclusion chromatography to purely isolate spinach vesicles. When applied to preadipocytes, these vesicles reduce the expression of C/EBP-α, SREBP1, and PPAR-γ genes, thereby inhibiting adipogenesis, differentiation, and fat accumulation. Encased in a lipid bilayer, these vesicles can reach the large intestine after oral ingestion and can be mass-produced from plants. Applicable to weight management health drinks, obesity improvement supplements for children and adolescents, and oral anti-obesity drugs, this method directly reduces body fat formation at the adipocyte level without the neurological side effects associated with appetite suppressants.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for the development of plant extracellular vesicle production processes and engineering platform technologies.
This technology utilizes the Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus IR06 strain, newly isolated and deposited as KFCC12014P, and a fermentate containing exopolysaccharides obtained by fermenting a substrate with this strain. The fermentate is used as an active ingredient in health functional foods for skin improvement, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical compositions for treating UV-induced dermatitis and photoaging.
UVB radiation generates excessive reactive oxygen species in the skin, damaging DNA and proteins and accelerating photoaging, such as wrinkles and loss of elasticity. Existing skin-improving ingredients like vitamins, collagen, and hyaluronic acid have poorly understood mechanisms, limited efficacy against complex inflammatory damage, and synthetic compounds raise safety concerns with long-term use, while evidence for the photoaging protection of polysaccharide materials remains insufficient.
This technology is designed to enhance antioxidant defense by scavenging ABTS radicals and reactive oxygen species and increasing Nrf2 and catalase expression, while reducing skin structural damage by inhibiting collagenase, elastase, tyrosinase, and hyaluronidase activity. It also protects the skin barrier by downregulating the NF-κB pathway and TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 expression, and restoring loricrin, filaggrin, and involucrin expression in 3D artificial skin models. Applicable to UV-blocking functional cosmetics, inner beauty health foods, and photodermatitis treatments, it enables antioxidant, whitening, anti-wrinkle, and barrier-improving effects through a single probiotic-derived ingredient.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for research into gut immunity-based functional skin health, inner beauty biomaterials, and their mechanisms.
This technology is a pharmaceutical composition for the prevention and treatment of melanoma that combines a butanol fraction of the aquatic plant water pennywort (Hydrocotyle umbellata) with 2-deoxy-D-glucose, a competitive inhibitor of glycolysis. The fraction contains glucopyranoside-based compounds as indicator substances, and the technology also includes health functional food compositions for the prevention and improvement of melanoma using the same formulation.
Conventional cytotoxic anticancer drugs exhibit high toxicity to normal cells, while targeted therapies are limited by narrow application ranges or drug resistance, and immunotherapies can cause side effects where overactive immune responses attack healthy tissue. Although metabolic anticancer drugs targeting cancer cell energy metabolism have emerged as an alternative, some cancer cells utilize both glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation, making it difficult to sufficiently inhibit growth with a glycolysis inhibitor alone.
This technology leverages the fact that the water pennywort butanol fraction inhibits cancer cell growth and proliferation without affecting normal cell metabolism. When combined with 2-deoxy-D-glucose—a glucose analog that blocks glycolysis and reduces ATP production—both pathways are simultaneously inhibited, creating a synergistic anticancer effect. The fraction can be standardized using indicator compounds for quality control. Applicable to melanoma treatments, anticancer adjuvants, and health functional foods for skin cancer prevention, this natural fraction derived from medicinal herbs cuts off cancer cell energy supplies through a dual mechanism, reducing the burden on normal cells compared to existing treatments.
This technology involves first encapsulating grapefruit extract containing naringenin and naringin within cyclodextrin, followed by secondary encapsulation through ionotropic gelation with cationic biopolymers and phosphate compounds to create nanoparticle complexes. This dual-encapsulation method improves the water solubility of grapefruit active ingredients and reduces the perception of bitterness in the mouth.
While naringenin in grapefruit offers antioxidant and cholesterol-lowering benefits, its poor water solubility limits intestinal absorption to approximately 15%. Additionally, naringin imparts a strong bitterness that reduces food palatability. Conventional methods like adding sugars or sweeteners fail to mask the bitterness, and liposomal encapsulation typically addresses either solubility or taste, but not both, which has limited the use of grapefruit extract primarily to pharmaceutical applications.
This technology involves a process where grapefruit extract (0.1–1 mg/mL) is added to an aqueous cyclodextrin solution for inclusion via hydrophobic host-guest binding. Subsequently, an amino-group-containing biopolymer (such as chitosan, gelatin, or polylysine) and tripolyphosphate are added at a weight ratio of 1:0.4–0.8 to induce gelation. Ultrasonic treatment is applied to control particle size between 150–800 nm. As a result, naringenin water solubility increases to over 200 µg/mL, and oral naringin release is suppressed to 25% or less. Applicable to functional diet beverages, antioxidant health supplements, and fruit-flavored food additives, this method enhances the bioavailability of grapefruit flavonoids and expands their utility as food ingredients by reducing bitterness without the need for sweeteners.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT for the development of various encapsulation application technologies to enhance the food utilization and bioavailability of functional substances, as well as the evaluation of their efficacy.
This technology is a culture obtained by cultivating the Lactobacillus kefiri DH5 strain, isolated from kefir, in a medium containing dairy products such as whey or skim milk, supplemented with yeast and dextrose. This culture is used as an ingredient for antimicrobial compositions, antimicrobial cosmetics, and antimicrobial functional foods.
Synthetic preservatives like parabens and benzoyl peroxide, used to prevent spoilage in food and cosmetics, have raised concerns regarding skin toxicity, while antibiotics require the constant development of new drugs due to the emergence of resistant bacteria. Probiotics, being live bacteria, face issues with declining counts during distribution and storage, and existing postbiotic antimicrobial materials, such as fermented turmeric gel, have limited application ranges, typically targeting only about three types of pathogens.
This technology involves cultivating the bacteria by inoculating them at 10³–10¹⁰ CFU/ml into a medium containing 1–100g of an additive mixture of yeast and dextrose (in a 6:1 to 1:4 weight ratio) per liter of dairy product, and then using the supernatant obtained via centrifugation as the culture. This culture exhibits antimicrobial activity against all eight pathogens: Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, Enterococcus faecalis, and Cronobacter sakazakii. It can be applied as a natural preservative in dairy and processed foods, an ingredient for preservative-free cosmetics, and in functional foods for preventing food poisoning. As a postbiotic, it is not dependent on live bacterial survival rates and can inhibit a broad range of pathogens, including Cronobacter, a contaminant in powdered milk.
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 provides a pharmaceutical composition for preventing or treating acute kidney injury using the gut probiotic Bacteroides vulgatus as an active ingredient, and also includes health functional food compositions containing the same strain for prevention and improvement.
Acute kidney injury occurs in approximately 5% of hospitalized patients and 30% of intensive care patients, with mortality rates reaching 60–70% following surgery or trauma. Existing synthetic drugs are expensive, offer only partial symptom relief, and have limited use due to concerns over long-term side effects. While Bacteroides vulgatus has been reported to aid in weight and inflammation reduction, its impact on kidney disease was previously unknown.
This technology is based on the discovery that administering Bacteroides vulgatus to animal models of kidney disease significantly increases survival rates and regulates immune responses at injury sites by increasing the expression of IL-1β, TNF-alpha, IL-6, and myeloperoxidase (MPO) in kidney cells. It primarily targets acute kidney injury caused by acute tubular necrosis or drug/chemical-induced nephrotoxicity. It can be applied as a renal protectant for patients on nephrotoxic drugs, as an adjunctive probiotic therapy for intensive care patients, and in functional kidney health foods, offering a way to increase survival rates for acute kidney injury patients using live gut microbes instead of expensive synthetic drugs.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT's Laboratory for Immune Control of NLRP3 Inflammatory Diseases based on Nano-AI Convergence Technology.
This technology utilizes 4-methoxycinnamic acid as an active ingredient in pharmaceutical compositions for preventing and treating obesity and hypertension in subjects with reduced p-AMPK or UCP-1 expression, as well as compositions for fatigue recovery and vitality. This ingredient is also used in research reagent compositions that increase p-AMPK and PGC-1α expression.
With the abundance of modern diets, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome—where two or more conditions like obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia overlap—has reached approximately 30% in both men and women, making heart disease and stroke leading causes of death. Chronic fatigue is also a root cause of various illnesses, yet there is a lack of safe, low-side-effect therapeutic and supplementary materials that address both metabolic diseases and fatigue.
This technology leverages the principle that 4-methoxycinnamic acid phosphorylates AMPK, a key regulator of energy metabolism, and increases the secretion of PGC-1α and the thermogenic protein UCP-1, thereby reducing lipid accumulation, fatty acid synthase (FAS) production, and TNFα-induced inflammation. Simultaneously, it increases intracellular ATP production to reduce fatigue and can be formulated at 1 to 50 parts by weight per 100 parts of the composition. Applicable to obesity and hypertension treatments, fatigue-recovery health supplements, and AMPK-activating research reagents, it offers the dual benefits of body fat reduction and energy production from a single, naturally derived ingredient.
