Jong-Yeol Park, a PhD candidate in the Department of Veterinary Medicine at Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) (President Yang O-Bong), supervised by Professor Se-Yeon Cha, was awarded the Outstanding Presentation Award at the recently held 50th Anniversary Scientific Meeting of the Korean Poultry Science Association.

PhD candidate Jong-Yeol Park developed a recombinant viral vector vaccine by inserting the gene of a variant infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) into turkey herpesvirus (HVT) using CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing technology. 

Whereas existing commercial vaccines provide only about 50% partial protection, the research team reported that the vaccine developed in this study demonstrated 100% protection, confirming complete prevention of the disease.

The researchers expect the technology to be applicable as a vaccine platform capable of rapidly responding within one to two months to various variant viruses emerging in the field, which should aid in the prevention and management of a range of challenging field diseases.

PhD candidate Jong-Yeol Park said, "I am deeply honored that the work I have conducted was recognized for excellence at this conference, and I am grateful to the fellow researchers who worked with me." He added, "Based on this achievement, I will pursue follow-up research not only to develop vaccines targeting various variant viruses but also to produce multivalent vaccines (antigens made by combining two or more pathogens) by inserting multiple genes."