Metabolic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and fatty liver have been exploding worldwide, causing high medical expenses, thus driving the need for research on metabolic inflammation and development of new drugs in related fields.

Professor Byung-Hyun Park (Dept. of Biochemistry, College of Medicine) and his team were selected as a “Medical Research Center Support Project (MRC Project)” by the Korean Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, and will conduct research to prevent and treat metabolic inflammatory diseases with the support of 6.5 billion won (approximately 6.5 million US dollars) over seven years from the government.

The MRC Project is aimed at improving the basic research capability of the nation by identifying and cultivating outstanding researcher groups with creativity and excellence in the fields of science that need to be focused on at a national level, in particular medicine, dentistry, Oriental medicine, and pharmacy, which are the fields involved in the identification of vital phenomena and disease mechanisms of human beings.

Park’s team will establish the Metabolic Inflammation Research Center (tentatively named) to conduct studies to measure the pathophysiology of metabolic diseases from the point of inflammation.

Prof. Park has proved that inflammatory response is the key mechanism of metabolic disease, through the research project on diabetes, with the support of 8.6 billion KRW (8.6 million USD) from the national and municipal governments over the past nine years.

In this study, the team will identify novel genes that induce metabolic inflammation in “thin obese” patients with normal body weight, abdominal obesity, and metabolic abnormalities, which are commonly observed in Koreans, to identify their function through animal models. Ultimately, they will develop a therapeutic agent to control metabolic diseases through regulation of enzyme activity of the identified genes.

In addition to developing new medicines for the treatment and prevention of metabolic inflammation, the research team plans to publish world-class papers, to apply patents, and to foster medical scientists to lead the next generation.