Although medicine has advanced rapidly over the past 20 to 30 years, severe refractory respiratory diseases still threaten many patients' lives. To overcome this, developing airway‑targeted treatments for refractory respiratory diseases is of paramount importance.

Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) Chair Professor Lee Yong-cheol, regarded as one of the country's leading clinicians in severe respiratory diseases, recently established a research institute for the development of treatments for refractory respiratory diseases. The institute brings together leading domestic and international researchers from Jeonbuk National University Hospital, the School of Pharmacy, the Institute for Molecular Biology and Genetics, and Harvard Medical School to pursue the conquest of severe refractory respiratory diseases. 

Aiming to develop airway‑targeted therapeutics, the team includes Chair Professor Lee Yong-cheol; Jeonbuk National University Hospital Professors Jin Gong‑yong, Jeong Myeong‑ja, and Kim Jong‑seung; Institute for Molecular Biology and Genetics Professor Jeong Jae‑seok; School of Pharmacy Professors Chae Han‑jeong, Min Kyung‑hyun, and Kang Ji‑hyun; and Harvard Medical School Professor Park Jin‑a.

Professor Lee, who makes rounds as early as 6 a.m. and is deeply committed to his patients, has witnessed many people suffering and dying from severe refractory respiratory diseases despite current medical care. As a clinician, he acutely felt the limits of modern medicine and resolved to develop breakthrough treatments and therapeutic approaches that transcend those limits. That resolve was the main reason for establishing the institute.

To date, Professor Lee's team was the first in the country to successfully develop an inhalable treatment for refractory asthma. In 2016, they participated as the nation's designated Respiratory Disease Product Efficacy Evaluation Research Center—the only team responsible for the respiratory disease sector within the Ministry of Health and Welfare's Health and Medical Technology‑to‑Business infrastructure project—providing efficacy evaluation services for professional respiratory disease products from domestic and international pharmaceutical companies.

Building on this foundation, in 2020 they were the only group selected in the respiratory disease field for the Ministry of Health and Welfare‑designated Center for Medical Technology Commercialization for Pulmonary Diseases. They have taken on major responsibilities including the evaluation of efficacy for COVID‑19 therapeutics, treatments for severe asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and other severe respiratory disease drug candidates, playing an important role in improving clinical trial success rates and promoting commercialization of domestic respiratory disease treatments.

Using the country's leading clinical and basic research infrastructure for respiratory diseases, they successfully established a development platform for optimal airway‑targeted therapeutics tailored to patients with chronic respiratory diseases. Based on this platform, they are conducting research to lay the groundwork for creating and nurturing the nation's future bio‑industry.

From these achievements, Professor Lee has gained the experience and confidence that, although the path to developing treatments for severe refractory respiratory diseases is difficult, it is achievable. He is confident in developing new therapeutics that are more effective than current options. The research team in particular boasts the nation's top‑level preclinical and clinical research environment for pulmonary diseases and the world‑class track records of participating researchers, raising expectations that they can realize effective treatments for refractory respiratory diseases, including specialized airway‑targeted formulations.

Chair Professor Lee stated, "There is currently a lack of effective treatments for many refractory pulmonary diseases, including severe asthma, so the novel and groundbreaking approaches our team has pursued are likely to become effective core strategies in clinical medicine." He added, "We are determined to succeed in developing optimal airway‑targeted therapeutics tailored to patients with severe refractory respiratory diseases, to open new horizons in this field and to bring great hope to many chronic refractory patients and their families who are suffering."

Meanwhile, Chair Professor Lee was appointed as a chair professor at the Jeonbuk National University School of Medicine—the first such appointment there—effective February 1 of this year. He is also committed to producing top medical researchers through the "Clinical Physician Training Program Aiming for the Nobel Prize." He is a full member of the Korean Academy of Medical Sciences and has served as president of the Korean Academy of Asthma and Allergy and as vice president of the Korean Tuberculosis and Respiratory Society.

In particular, Chair Professor Lee is a recipient of the Pfizer Medical Award. Recognized for his outstanding research in the field of respiratory allergy, he has successfully secured and led large government‑led projects—including nationally designated research laboratory programs, hospital specialization research centers, the country's first respiratory specialty disease center, and a respiratory disease efficacy center—and is recognized as the nation's leading authority in respiratory preclinical and clinical research and care.