Scientists develop tools to create target drugs

By Kim Tae-gyu

A team of Korean scientists developed a groundbreaking new technology to modify proteins, which is necessary in developing tailor-made drugs for various diseases.

The team led by Prof. Park Hee-sung at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) said Friday that the experiments were featured by Science, a renowned peer-reviewed journal.

“Abnormal post-translational modification (PTM) of proteins causes a series of neurodegenerative disorders and serious diseases such as cancer and diabetes,” Park said.

“But we could not make model abnormal proteins, which are good vehicles to work on highly efficient treatments. What we have achieved this time around is designed to deal with the problem.”

PTM, which occurs on a protein after its translation is complete, is a crucial mechanism for regulation of protein functions as it controls numerous biological processes.

But comprehensive studies of many fundamental cellular processes including disease progression have been difficult due to the limited chemical tools available to achieve nature’s chemical diversity in proteins.

The findings of Park and his colleagues are the solution to the hardship.

“Our novel technology will dramatically expand our ability to decipher cellular functions of PTM and PTM-related disease,” Park noted. “Currently, the yield rate is not so good but it could improve so as to reach a commercially viable state in a couple of years.”

Park’s team applied for a U.S. patent for their work.

Prof. Kim Sung-hoon at Seoul National University, who heads the state-backed bio-convergence research group named the Global Frontier, expects that the technology has exponential potential. The Global Frontier financially supported the research of Park’s team.

For example, Kim said that it would help researchers invent highly efficient anti-cancer drugs, which zoom in on only cancerous cells without hurting healthy ones.

“When the newly-developed technology is commercialized, it would create a paradigm shift in creating target anti-cancer medicines and the treatments for diseases at cerebral nerves,” Kim said.

“The immediate target would be to find new drug materials based on the new technology, which will eventually be expanded to pharmaceutical and bio firms both at home and abroad.”