Professor Kyungmoo Yea and his colleagues at the Department of New Biology in DGIST
A research group, led by Professor Kyungmoo Yea at the Department of New Biology, DGIST has signed an agreement on the joint R&D for the development of anti-cancer antibody with Ahn-Gook Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. in September.
In general, most of antibody drugs are selected by their affinity against targets. Therefore, they may act as antagonists to inhibit the activity of targets. Recently, the Yea’s group has established a unique platform technology to fish out agonist antibodies which can enhance the activity of targets oppositely. The two parties agreed to accelerate the development of novel agonist anti-cancer drug candidates.
“The conventional selection of antibody reveals the limits of new drug development, so it is necessary to apply innovative approach to make new drugs” says Prof. Yea. “By this collaboration, I hope to integrate the business know-hows of Ahn-Gook Pharmaceutical and antibody platform technology of DGIST. After then, I want to prove a successful, model case of industry-academy joint research in the Korean pharmaceutical area.”
