Professor Park Jinju's GIST Team Initiates Development of COVID-19 'Serological Diagnostic' Technology

Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency Emergency Issue Designation Priority Negotiation Candidate Selection

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Yoon Jamin] A research team at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (President Kim Gi-seon·GIST) is embarking on the development of technology for serological diagnosis of COVID-19.

GIST announced on the 25th that Professor Jinju Park's team from the Department of Chemistry has been selected as the priority negotiation candidate for the 2020 Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's urgent issue-designated academic research and development project titled "Production and efficacy evaluation of diagnostic antigens and antisera for the 2019 novel coronavirus."

On the 16th, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, after two rigorous evaluation processes including document and presentation assessments, selected and announced a total of five research teams, including Professor Jinju Park's team at GIST, as priority negotiation candidates for each topic.

Currently, genetic testing is used as the laboratory diagnostic method for the novel coronavirus; however, testing may be limited depending on the timing of symptom onset and virus clearance. For epidemiological investigations such as infection history and for evaluating the efficacy of vaccines and therapeutics, serological detection methods are necessary.

Professor Park's team, led by postdoctoral researcher Kyuho Yeom, has secured genetic resources necessary for the expression and purification of the N protein of the 2019 novel coronavirus and plans to conduct research for antigen protein production using various expression systems.

They also plan to produce antisera (polyclonal antibodies) through animal model experiments utilizing the secured antigens. In particular, to perform enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) application evaluations of the antigens and antibodies produced in this study, they have formed a joint research team with Professor Mingon Kim's team (PhD candidate Jooyoung Kang), authorities in the diagnostic field.

This project is scheduled to proceed until the end of this year from the contract date.

Professor Jinju Park stated, "The goal of the research is to secure the technology necessary for serological diagnosis of COVID-19 antigens by leveraging the know-how developed in creating a highly sensitive analysis method for Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (SFTS) virus (the killer tick)."

Meanwhile, prior research results related to this study by Professor Jinju Park and Professor Mingon Kim's teams have been published in specialized analytical chemistry journals such as Analytical Chemistry.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.