Konkuk Professor enables mass production of antibiotics alternative

Park Chan-kyu, professor at Konkuk University

By Lee Hyo-sik

A biotechnology professor at Konkuk University has developed a technology to mass produce a biomaterial that could become a viable alternative to antibiotics.

This latest technology has attracted keen attention from pharmaceutical companies at home and abroad, which have been seeking new material that can replace antibiotics, Prof. Park Chan-kyu of the university’s Department of Animal Biotechnology said, Thursday.

With the overuse of antibiotics in Korea and elsewhere, some bacteria have become tolerant, forcing the medical world to come up with an alternative for treating infections and other illnesses.

“The technology developed by our team at Konkuk University could offer a solution to this pressing issue,” Park said. “For the first time in the world, we have succeeded in mass producing an antimicrobial peptide (AMP), which has been touted as an alternative to antibiotics for many years.”

AMP, part of the immune response found among all classes of life, has been demonstrated to kill bacteria, viruses and fungi. But AMP has not been widely used because it is difficult to mass produce.

“In May, we obtained a patent from the Korean Intellectual Property Office and are now trying to earn an international patent in accordance with the Patent Cooperation Treaty,” the professor said. “We have secured source technologies in speeding up the production of AMP. This will prompt the mass production and commercialization of the matter for a wide range of medical uses.”

He said AMP will be effective in treating bacteria and viruses resistant to conventional antibiotics, stressing it will significantly boost public health and reduce medical costs.

Park’s research, “Green fluorescent protein as a scaffold for high efficiency production of functional bacteriotoxic proteins in Escherichia coli,” was published in Scientific Reports, an online and open-access journal run by Nature, in February. The research was sponsored by the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

Park received a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Konkuk University in 1991. After earning a master’s degree from the school, he went to the United States and received a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in 1998.

Until 2001, he was at the Jackson Laboratory in the U.S. state of Maine for postdoctoral training. In 2004, Park became a full-time professor at Konkuk University.