Professors Byun Jung-hoon (Mechanical Engineering)-Kim Jong-oh and Yong Cheol-soon (Pharmacology) reaps outcome of inter-disciplinary convergence research

First to develop 'aerosol continuous process', which is a new technology that can be applied to the manufacturing of multi-functional nan-drugs

Published in the latest issue of Nature's sister journal 'NPG Asia Materials'

[August 17, 2017]

YU is receiving attention from academic circles by developing new drug manufacturing technologies through inter-disciplinary (mechanical engineering-pharmacology) integrated research.

YU School of Mechanical Engineering Professor Byun Jung-hoon (38) and College of Pharmacy Professors Kim Jong-oh (42) and Yong Cheol-soon (61) conducted collaborative research and became the first to develop the continue process of aerosol (small solid or liquid particles suspended in the air) to manufacture nano-drugs in an on-demand method (manufacturing necessary materials upon the need of users).

The YU research team presented the research results of using the developed aerosol continuous process to manufacture nano-drugs (hybrid nano graphene oxide) needed for near infrared ray-induced heated chemotherapy for effective cancer treatment.

The research team explained, "The developed technology is a new platform technology that can be applied in a wide range of various multi-functional nano-drug manufacturing," and added, "It can be used as an alternative to the existing complex liquid chemical process, and therefore, it can be applied as a new process technology in the pharmaceutical industry, and furthermore, be applied for customized treatment based on the on-demand method."

The research results were published in the latest edition (August 4, 2017) of the world-acclaimed academic journal <NPG Asia Materials> (Impact factor (IF) 9.157) under the title 'Easy on-demand self-assembly of lateral nanodimensional hybrid graphene oxide flakes for near-infrared-induced chemothermal therapy’.

 Professor Byun Jung-hoon said, "The achievement of this study was the development of platform technologies that can create new additional values for the industry as a joint research combining mechanical engineering and pharmacology." He added, "We are currently concentrating on cooperative research with research teams in the pharmacology sector in order to provide the cornerstone for research and to create values through various bio-medical applications of aerosol. In addition to collaborative research within Korea, we are also engaged in international joint research with the US, Germany and others."