Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS), which approaches a 20% fatality rate, is a representative tick‑borne zoonotic infectious disease with continuous case occurrence. The absence of effective therapeutics and commercialized vaccines has been identified as a major threat. In particular, the immune response mechanisms to the virus have not been fully elucidated, creating significant challenges for vaccine development.

Research aimed at overcoming these high hurdles in SFTS vaccine development is now being advanced by Professor Jun‑gu Kang's research team at the Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) Institute for Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, attracting attention from the academic community.

The team has demonstrated its research capacity by consecutively winning three new Research Projects this year from the National Research Foundation of Korea, the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. The projects target SFTS vaccine development and commercialization.

The selected projects are: the National Research Foundation of Korea's “Re‑examining the Role of Non‑neutralizing Antibodies Against SFTSV,” the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency's “Establishment of an In Vitro VLP Platform for SFTS Vaccine Candidates,” and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's “Comparative Characterization of Immune Responses Across Vaccine Platforms and Strategy Development to Identify the Optimal Platform for Emerging Infectious Disease Response.” Collectively, these projects cover the full research cycle, from elucidating SFTSV immune mechanisms to developing vaccine candidates and formulating platform optimization strategies.

In particular, to address uncertainties in immune responses and the lack of inter‑platform comparisons—issues highlighted as limitations in previous vaccine development—the research team will re‑examine the functions of non‑neutralizing antibodies and carry out integrated studies that precisely analyze the immunological characteristics of various vaccine platforms. Through this work, they aim to establish the scientific basis for next‑generation SFTS vaccines and to explore the feasibility of building a universal platform applicable to responses for emerging infectious diseases.

Professor Kang's team has already been conducting both basic and applied research. In 2025 they performed the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ industry–academia–research Collabo R&D program project “Development of an SFTS Vaccine for Companion Animals” and carried out the PhD student research grant support program project “Analysis of SFTSV NP Antigen Determinants Involved in Protective Efficacy (Da‑eun Jeong, PhD candidate).” With the newly secured additional research funding, the team is expected to accelerate research from discovery of vaccine candidates to establishment of commercialization foundations.

Professor Jun‑gu Kang stated, “We will present the potential of next‑generation SFTS vaccines by organically combining the differentiated strengths of vaccine platforms. We will continue this research so that it contributes not only to protecting public health but also to the development of a high‑value vaccine industry.”