Purdue, S. Korean researchers to meet to advance nanomedicine efforts, collaboration

August 25, 2011

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Research teams from Purdue's Discovery Park and the Korean Institute of Science and Technology will meet Sept. 6 as part of their effort to develop molecular imaging and nanotechnology tools to simultaneously diagnose and treat cancer and chronic and infectious diseases.

The daylong symposium, the sixth in the series since the partnership was formed in September 2006, is titled "High Impact Research to Society." It will run from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Discovery Park's Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, Room 121.

Jong Joo Na, chief executive officer of DKC Corp. in South Korea, will deliver the keynote address, "Technology Commercialization of Optical Imaging Probes," at 2 p.m. His company is developing a number of compounds that can be used as imaging labels to diagnose diseases.

Elizabeth Hart-Wells, assistant vice president and director of the Office of Technology Commercialization at the Purdue Research Foundation, will talk about the university's discovery with delivery commercialization efforts at 1:30 p.m.

Presentations by researchers from KIST, Seoul National University and Purdue also are scheduled. For a complete agenda, go to https://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/bioscience/events/view.php?id=665. For reservations by the deadline Monday (Aug. 29), contact Cindy Ream of the Discovery Park Engagement Office, 765-494-0015, cream@purdue.edu.

In 2006, the South Korean Ministry of Science and Technology selected the KIST and Purdue team project from 20 international research proposals submitted to examine how to learn more about the molecular makeup of diseases.

The $4.5 million research initiative, which spans nine years, now involves several KIST and Purdue researchers, working to advance the role that nanoparticles can play in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer or chronic diseases like diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

The research also focuses on next-generation tools that would aid the medical community in what's known as theragnosis -- combining simultaneous diagnostics and therapeutics.

Participating faculty members from Purdue include James Leary, Kinam Park, J. Paul Robinson, Ji-Xin Cheng, Alyssa Panitch, Yoon Yeo, David H. Thompson, Alexander Wei, Joseph M K Irudayaraj, V. Jo Davisson and Thomas M. Talavage and Bartek Rajwa. Luanne Ludwig and Thomas Sors administer the KIST-Purdue collaboration.

The Purdue team is working with researchers Kuiwon Choi of KIST, who is leading the South Korean team along with Ick Chan Kwon, the program's co-principal investigator.

The Korean Ministry of Science and Technology provides central planning, coordination and evaluation of all science and technology activities in South Korea. The agency also formulates national policies in the areas of technology, space and nuclear energy.

Writer:  Phillip Fiorini, 765-496-3133, pfiorini@purdue.edu

Sources:  James Leary, 765-494-7280, jfleary@purdue.edu

                   Kinam Park, 765-463-1989, kpark@purdue.edu

Related website:
6th annual KIST-Purdue Symposium

Bindley Bioscience Center 

Birck Nanotechnology Center