ISSN 1860-6768 BJIOAM 3 (5) 561700 (2008) Vol. 3 May 2008

5/2008Biotech in Korea

BioeconomyBioindustryBiotech Research

www.biotechnology-journal.com

2008 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 561

Editors-in-Chief

Alois Jungbauer (Vienna, Austria)E-mail: alois.jungbauer@boku.ac.atSang Yup Lee (Daejeon, Korea)E-mail: leesy@kaist.ac.kr

Senior Editors

Pushpa M. Bhargava (Hyderabad, India)Marc Blondel (Brest, France)Zhuan Cao (Beijing, China)Giorgio Carta (Charlottesville, VA, USA)Henry Daniell (Orlando, FL, USA)Theo Dingermann (Frankfurt, Germany)Carl J. Douglas (Vancouver, Canada)Gerhard Eisenbrand (Kaiserslautern,

Germany)Sophia Hober (Stockholm, Sweden)Mikhail Rabinovich (Bayreuth, Germany)Michael Wink (Heidelberg, Germany)

Executive Editor/Managing Editor

Barbara JanssensBiotechnology JournalWiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaABoschstrasse 12D-69469 Weinheim, GermanyTel.: +49-6201-606 495Fax: +49-6201-606 525E-mail: biotechnology-journal@wiley-vch.de

In liaison with

Editorial Board

Petr Bartunek (Prague, Czech Republic)Lawrence W. Bergman (Philadelphia,

PA, USA)Anne Bertolotti (Cambridge, UK)Miguel A. Blzquez (Valencia, Spain)Andrea Buchacher (Vienna, Austria)Janusz M. Bujnicki (Warsaw, Poland)Patrick C. Cirino (Pennsylvania, PA, USA)Donald Cowan (Cape Town, South Africa)Jiri Damborsky (Brno, Czech Republic)Massimo Delledonne (Verona, Italy)Luc Douay (Paris, France)Ruth Freitag (Bayreuth, Germany)Yali Friedman (Washington, DC, USA)Hikmet Geckil (Malatya, Turkey)Klaus Graumann (Kundl, Austria)Elmar Heinzle (Saarbrucken, Germany)Lszl Homolya (Budapest, Hungary)Suwan N. Jayasinghe (London, UK)Jrg Knblein (Berlin, Germany)Goetz Laible (Hamilton, New Zealand)Ulf Landegren (Uppsala, Sweden)Gen Larsson (Stockholm, Sweden)David Leys (Leicester, UK)Walter Lichtensteiger (Zurich, Switzerland)Christine Machold (Thousand Oaks,

CA, USA)Stephan Michnick (Montreal, Canada)Phillipe Mondon (Labege, France)Maria Mota (Lisboa, Portugal)Daniel Otzen (Aalborg, Denmark)Livio Pellizzoni (Rome, Italy)Barur R. Rajeshkumar (Worcester, MA, USA)John Rossi (Duarte, CA, USA)Berthold Rutz (Munich, Germany)Sven J. Saupe (Bordeaux, France)Spencer Shorte (Paris, France)Hiroaki Suga (Tokyo, Japan)Kazunari Taira (Tokyo, Japan)Nektarios Tavernarakis (Heraklion, Greece)Didier Trouche (Toulouse, France)Victoriano Valpuesta (Malaga, Spain)

Cover illustration

Biotech in Korea. This specialissue of BTJ is edited by our newco-Editor-in-Chief Sang Yup Leefrom the Korea Advanced Insti-tute of Science and Technology inDaejon. Featured are all aspectsof bioeconomy, bioindustry andbiotech research in Korea. Sang Yup: image copyright to be

mentioned here??

Publisher

Wiley-VCH GmbH & Co. KGaAP.O. Box 101161D-69451 Weinheim, Germany

http://www.biotechnology-journal.com

562 2008 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

BiotechnologyJournal Biotechnol. J. 2008, 3, 562563

ments in Korean biotechnology.The review by Dr. Byung-HwanHyeon and his colleagues de-scribes in detail the Koreanbiotechnology strategies repre-sented by Bio-Vision 2016 [1].Readers will be able to catch upwith the developments in thefield of biotechnology beingmade in Korea. Dr. Jihyun Kimand his collaborators present re-cent progress in microbial ge-nome projects in Korea [2]. Inaddition to the summary on thepublished genome projects onMannheimia and Zymomonasperformed by other Korean re-search teams, the authors owngenome projects including Ha-hella, Leuconostoc, Paenibacillus,E. coli B, Bifidobacterium, Strep-tomyces, and Donghaeana aredescribed.

Systems biology andits applications are hotresearch topics in Koreaas in other countries. Myown research group re-ports on the detailed

strategies for systems-levelmetabolic engineering of mi-croorganisms with specific ex-amples. Systems biological ap-proaches towards developingimproved strains by integratingomics and computational analy-ses are described [3]. Two re-search groups working on sys-tems biology also present theirrecent results. ProfessorKwang-Hyun Cho reports on thedynamic analysis of the calciumsignaling pathway in cardiacmycocytes [4]. Professor Do HanKim reports on his transcrip-tome network analysis of mouseheart in relation to heart dis-eases [5]. Professor Gyun MinLee gives his expert opinion in

Editorial: Biotechnology in Korea the next generationgrowth engine

concerted effort on developingbiotechnology has only begun in 1994 when seven govern-ment ministries collaborated tolaunch a program called Biotech2000, run from 1994 to 2006. Oneof the visible aims of this planwas to make Korea one of theseven top biotechnology coun-tries by the year 2010. In 2005,Korea ranked 13th in number ofpapers published in SCIE-listedpublications, which is a big jumpfrom the 29th place in 1994. Thenumber of patents also in-creased to rank Korea at the 14th

place globally. In 2006, the sec-ond phase plan for biotechnolo-gy promotion was establishedunder the name Bio-Vision2016, which will be in operationuntil 2016. Bio-Vision 2016 en-compasses not only technical,

but also social, economic, andenvironmental considerations.Catch phrases are healthy life-oriented society and prosper-ous bio-economy. Detailedplans are outlined to promotestrategies for advancing the fol-lowing five key biotech fields:lifesciences; healthcare and me-dicine; food, agriculture andlivestock; industrial processes,environment and maritime in-dustry; and bioconvergence in-dustry.

In this BTJ special issue onBiotechnology in Korea, 5 reviewpapers and 8 original papers byleading Korean biotech rese-archers are presented to show-case some of the recent develop-

From mobile phones to HDTV,cars to large ships, semiconduc-tor chips to laptop computers, itis not difficult to find productsMade in Korea around theworld. Korean economy hasbeen one of the fastest growingin the world, now reaching a per

capita GNP of about $20 000.Heavy industry and IT industryhave been the two major driversof Korean economic growth. Ko-rea is now considering biotech-nology as its next generationgrowth engine.

In a broad sense, biotechnol-ogy has been around during thepast 4341 years of Kore-an history. Koreans lovefermented food, andhave been enjoying sig-nature foods such asKimchi (fermented cab-bage), fermented fish, and fer-mented soybean soup. Of course,fermented alcoholic beverageshave been around for a longtime. Koreans also have a longhistory of own therapeutic me-thods and medications, as nicelydescribed in the medical text-book Dong-Eui-Bo-Gam byJun Heo, published in 1610.

Compared to these old Kore-an traditions, the history of mod-ern biotechnology in Korea israther short. In 1982, the Min-istry of Science and Technologyhas selected biotechnology as acore strategic technology, whichled to the launching of theBiotechnology Promotion Act,passed into law in 1983. A large

New discoveries of high impact reside at the bound-aries of multi-disciplines, Nam Pyo Suh, KAIST President

2008 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 563

Biotechnol. J. 2008, 3, 562563 www.biotechnology-journal.com

the review paper on the strate-gies for cellular engineering ofCHO cells for the enhanced pro-duction of therapeutic proteins[6].

Hansenula polymorpha is abiotechnologically important me-thylotrophic yeast capable ofproducing large amounts of re-combinant proteins. Dr. Hyun-AKang and her colleagues reporttheir recent results on glyco-engineering of H. polymorphafor the production of glycopro-teins [7]. Once the therapeuticproteins are developed, a suit-able delivery method becomesimportant. Professor Tae GwanPark presents his recent work onthe development of an injectableand sustained system for deliv-ering human growth hormoneusing chemically modified plu-ronic copolymer hydrogels [8].

Other than therapeutic pro-teins, structural proteins such asspider silk protein and musselglue protein are of great interestfor industrial applications. Pro-fessor Hyung Joon Cha reviewshis work performed over thepast years on the cloning of newgenes encoding mussel glueproteins, the production of bio-adhesive proteins and applica-tions [9]. Professor ByunggeeKim reports on the strategies forimproving and diversifying ami-notransferases with respect totheir substrate specificities byprofile analysis and protein-lig-and docking studies [10]. Thisapproach should be useful inimproving enzymes for diversebiocatalysis applications.

Finally, Professor Sang JunSim reports on the developmentof an interesting pathogen de-tection system using a polydi-

acetylene-based fluorescencechip [11]. Using the waterbornepathogen Cryptosporidium par-vum as a model organism, theyshow that their system allowsnon-labeled detection of thispathogen.

It is by no means possible tocover in this single special issueof the Biotechnology Journal allthe exciting developments madein the field of biotechnology inKorea. Nonetheless, these pa-pers will provide our readerswith a good sense on how Kore-an biotechnology is advancing insome of the key biotech areas. Inaddition to the rapid advances inbiotechnology itself, Korea ishighly encouraging fusion re-search. According to the KAISTPresident Nam Pyo Suh, newdiscoveries of high impact resideat the boundaries of multi-disci-plines. Integration of biotech-nology with information tech-nology and nanotechnology isadvancing rapidly in Korea. An-other BTJ special issue focusingon these exciting biotech devel-opments Made in Korea isplanned for the future. Until

then, I hope that this special is-sue will serve as a starting pointto get closer to understandingKorean biotechnology.

Biotechnology it is the nextgeneration growth engine in Ko-rea!

Dr. Sang Yup LeeEditor-in-Chief,Biotechnology JournalDistinguished Professor and LG Chem Chair ProfessorDepartment of Chemical andBiomolecular EngineeringCo-Director, Institute for theBioCenturyKAIST, Daejeon, KoreaE-mail: leesy@kaist.ac.kr

Sang Yup Lee

Direct links to cited articles:[1] http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/biot.200700248[2] http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/biot.200800016[3] http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/biot.200700240[4] http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/biot.200700247[5] http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/biot.200700250[6] http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/biot.200700249[7] http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/biot.200700252[8] http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/biot.200700251[9] http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/biot.200700258

[10] http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/biot.200700264[11] http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/biot.200700246