It is no exaggeration to say that a thrombus, the clotted mass of blood in non-interrupted vessels, attached to the vessel wall, is like a “time bomb” as we cannot predict when and where it forms, leading people to die by obstructing the flow of blood. Therefore, it is essential to rapidly diagnose and treat thrombosis, the formation process of blood clots in the non-interrupted cardio-vascular system, to minimize the disorders associated with the disease, and protect life.

CBNU professor Dongwon Lee (BIN Convergence Technology)’s team has recently developed an imaging system selectively targeting thrombus to efficiently diagnose and inhibit thrombosis, drawing the attention of world academia. The research was published in the June issue of ACS Nano (IF 13.942).

Lee’s team designed nanoparticles that are capable of early diagnosis and treatment to reduce the adverse effects associated with excessive doses of anti-thrombotic drugs, which are weaknesses of existing ones, and to meet the characteristics of thrombotic disorders whose prognosis and severity is determined by treatment time.

The team demonstrated the biosafety and anti-thrombotic effects of the technique through various cellular experiments and animal testing with Prof. Peter M. Kang’s team of the Cardiovascular Division at Harvard Medical School.

The research on interdisciplinary convergence has also gained momentum. Lee’s team collaborated with Prof. ChulGyu Song (Dept. of Electronics Engineering, CBNU) and other doctors for fluorescence and photoacoustic imaging using nanoparticles.

"Currently, there is no drug that controls the high concentration of harmful free radicals that occur in cardiovascular diseases and inhibits the formation of thrombus," said Prof. Lee. “We will try our best to reach the clinic through further studies.”

The research was made possible by the support of the Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, through the “Development Project of Realtime Cardiovascular Diagnosis System Based on Multifunctional 3D Ultrasound Imaging” and “Development and Verification of Thrombus Imaging Technology Based on Therapeutic Nanoparticles” with the participation of Dr. Changsun Kang and Sian Gwon (Dept. of BIN Convergence Technology, CBNU), Prof. Seong-Cheol Park (Dept. of Polymer Engineering, Suncheon National University), Dr. Jongho Jeon (Atomic Energy Research Institute), and Prof. Do Won Hwang (Dept. of Nuclear Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine), in addition to the abovementioned researchers.