Late last year, Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) signed an industry–university–hospital collaborative research agreement with Ildong Pharmaceutical and Jeonbuk National University Hospital to develop cancer therapeutics. JBNU signed a second agreement on the 15th of last month with YoungKey Pharm (CEO Kim Deok-rye), further accelerating the development of cancer therapeutics.

This agreement concerns anticancer drug development carried out by the research team led by Professor Jeong Hwan-jeong of the Department of Nuclear Medicine, Medical School. JBNU will provide research personnel and equipment. YoungKey Pharm Co., Ltd. will stably supply GMP-produced raw materials required for therapeutic development. Jeonbuk National University Hospital will support preclinical and clinical trials.

Through this agreement, Professor Jeong's research team in the Department of Nuclear Medicine will be able to stably obtain GMP-produced raw materials required to formulate a drug delivery system capable of releasing agents selectively into cancer cells.

The novel tumor therapeutic the research team is developing is an unprecedented treatment that simultaneously combines embolization therapy, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy to treat cancer. The team expects that it will have fewer side effects than systemic chemotherapy or external beam radiotherapy.

Meanwhile, the Department of Nuclear Medicine of the Medical School operates facilities such as the Joint Basic Nuclear Research Laboratory, the Cyclotron Research Center, and a nationally designated mid-sized research laboratory. It currently publishes more than ten papers each year in SCI-indexed journals in the areas of radiopharmaceuticals, molecular imaging therapy techniques, and nanomedicine.

In addition, it transferred technology for biocompatible quantum dots in 2011, and this technology is expected to be commercialized soon.