Professor Dong-Hwan Lee (Department of Mechanical Design, College of Engineering) has succeeded in being the first in the world to commercialize a fully automated blood viscosity analyzer, a medical device he developed through a faculty start-up.

Since 2010, he began developing a medical device for measuring blood viscosity through a faculty start-up. The device was designated for insurance reimbursement in 2018 and has been used as a diagnostic and therapeutic marker for cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and peripheral vascular diseases.

Thirteen years after development began and amid a sharp increase in demand for blood viscosity testing, Professor Lee developed a fully automated blood viscosity analyzer that dramatically improves ease of use and testing capacity. It is the world’s first and only fully automated multi-channel blood viscosity testing system. It received approval from the Korea Food & Drug Administration (KFDA) and was listed with the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA).

Following these procedures, it has been installed in major contract blood testing institutions in the country since December and has entered full-scale commercialization.

Professor Lee, who was selected as a Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) Star Fellow in recognition of his outstanding research, recalled that commercializing the fully automated blood viscosity analyzer was a continuous, arduous journey spanning 13 years.

Seeing patients suffering from hyperviscosity syndrome caused by excessively high blood viscosity as well as cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and peripheral vascular diseases, Professor Lee was determined, as a researcher, to develop a device that could diagnose these conditions simply and rapidly. Through a special law enacted by Presidential Decree that opened the path for university professors to start technology-based companies, he founded BioReologics Co., Ltd. in 2010 as a faculty start-up and began full-scale technology development.

Subsequently, Professor Lee transferred 15 domestic and international patents related to blood viscosity from the JBNU Industry-University Cooperation to BioReologics Co., Ltd. He was selected for technology transfer commercialization under the Jeonbuk Research and Development Special Zone, and succeeded in commercializing a fully automated multi-channel blood viscosity testing system capable of measuring 2,000 specimens per day.

In the bioindustry, considering clinical trials and various approvals, it typically takes at least 15 years; therefore, Professor Lee's technology start-up was by no means an easy path. During the difficult times he soothed his painful experiences through poetry and calligraphy. As a result, during that period he debuted as a poet in literary circles and achieved special selection three consecutive times in the calligraphy category of the Korea Art Exhibition, cultivating an uncommon humanistic sensibility for an engineer.

Professor Lee said, "The special law enacted by Presidential Decree that opened the way for university professors to start technology businesses brought many hardships, but it also provided the rewarding opportunity to practice applied scholarship that transforms theoretical foundations into core technologies. As this fully automated blood viscosity analyzer is the first in the world, I take pride in its potential to capture the global market and to be used as a marker for prevention and treatment of circulatory diseases, including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular conditions."

He added, "BioReologics Co., Ltd., which achieved technology-based start-up status, received investment from the Korea Technology Finance Corporation two years ago. With the commercialization of the fully automated multi-channel blood viscosity testing system, there is large demand for kits from contract blood testing institutions, university hospitals nationwide, and health screening centers, and the company is emerging as a promising player in our region's bioindustry. We will continue our efforts to build a successful model in which faculty technology start-ups lead to an initial public offering (IPO) and to realize the unicorn company dream."