Nanobiotechnology R&D Strategy in the Republic of Korea€¦ · of these technologies. The 6Ts refer to information technology (IT), biotechnology (BT), nanotechnology (NT), engineering

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www.asiabiotech.com Biotechnology in Korea

Nanobiotechnology R&D Strategy in the Republic of Korea

* Bong Hyun Chung, Ph.D Hyun Kyu Park, Ph.D Yongwon Jung, Ph.D

This is an updated version of a previous review article (APBN 9(20), 1067–1071, 2005).

The Republic of Korea has achieved an incredible record of growth and is currently ranked 13th in trade, even though the country is just one-seventh the size of Texas and has poor natural resources. In terms of scientific publications, Korea was responsible for 1.91% of the 835,126 total publications listed in the Science Citation Index for 2004, making it the 13th most prolific producer of scientific publications in the world. Korea has been a leading country in steel, shipbuilding, and refinery industries and it produces world-class products such as automobiles, semiconductor

memory devices, CDMA cellular phones, and flat panel displays (LCDs and PDPs). Despite these advances, however, Korea still lags behind her competitors in terms of materials, components, and advanced basic technologies. The Korean government is placing stronger emphasis on the importance of science and technology in an effort to overcome these disadvantages and to catch up with the advanced technology of Japan and leading Western nations.

For the past several years, the Korean government has selected six cutting-edge technologies, the so-called 6Ts, and invested significantly in the R&D of these technologies. The 6Ts refer to information technology (IT), biotechnology (BT), nanotechnology (NT), engineering technology (ET), computer technology (CT), and space technology (ST). In 2005, the government spent 55.1% (or US$3.298 million) of its total R&D expenditure on the 6Ts, which is a 39.9% increase over the previous year. Not surprisingly, IT was the main focus of the investment, followed by BT, ET, and NT (Figure 1), though the portion of funding for BT, ET and NT was about 2% more than in 2004. While the research on IT, ET, ST, and CT is centered more on industrial application and development, the

*BioNanotechnology Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Daejeon 305-600, Korea

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research on BT and NT is still at a fundamental level. Moreover, collaborative research among academic institutes, research institutes, and private companies is very active in these areas.

In 2001, the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) announced a major strategy to boost scientific R&D, focusing particularly on BT and NT to promote Korea’s competitiveness in these two emerging fields. When the MOST unveiled its 10 year plan to support NT R&D, it anticipated a general consensus that emerging NT would have an enormous and revolutionary impact on society. The Korean government also legislated new regulations in 2002 to facilitate the development of NT, and it passed new operating regulations in 2003 for the development of NT. The goal of these regulations was to enhance the prospects of joining the G-5 nations in NT development by the year 2010; the strategy was to increase the NT R&D expenditure to the following levels: 50% of the leading country’s expenditure by 2006, and up to 80% of the leading country’s expenditure by 2010.

Table 1 shows Korea’s expected investments in NT over the next 10 years, with respect to R&D, education and training, and infrastructure. The Korean government is focusing on areas such as NT because these areas have a competitive edge. To boost NT, the government is currently supporting five frontier projects (each of which receives USD9 million a year for 10 years); the government is also supporting a nano-core technology program (comprising 10 selected technologies, each of which receives up to USD2 million a year) and a nano-foundation program (comprising 20 selected subjects, each of which receives US$1 million a year). Table 2 shows the R&D funding for each NT program supported by related ministries in the 2002-2004 period.

To develop the NT infrastructure, the Korean government established two Nano-fabrication centers (the National Nano-Fabrication Center and the Korea Advanced Nano-Fabrication Center), the locations of which are shown in Figure 2. In the 2002-2004 period, the government also established five NT industrialization centers in five different areas. Moreover, to foster the sharing and exchange of recent information on NT, the government established the Nanotechnology Information Center at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information; the center runs an on-line information service called Nano Weekly (www.nanonet.info).

Nanobiotechnology, which involves the application of NT tools and processes to devices used in the study of biosystems, has attracted increasing interest over the last 10 years. This area of research has opened up new perspectives in analytics and therapy, particularly in the fields of medicine, drug discovery, and pharmacology, and it enables researchers to utilize biomolecules to create better nanoscale devices. Nanobiotechnology is a typical interdisciplinary field of research—it is based on the collaboration of biologists, chemists, physicists, engineers, and medical doctors.

Nanobiotechnology and NT have developed in Korea in much the same way as in other countries. However, in the 2002–2004 period, the R&D expenditure for nanobiotechnology in Korea accounted for just 6% (or USD64.3 million)

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of the total NT investment in the government sector (Figure 3). In the US, the annual fund for nanobiotechnology is reported to be USD400 million. This contrast indicates that nanobiotechnology is still in the embryonic stage in Korea. Figure 4 shows the estimated government R&D expenditure for various nanobiotechnology fields for the 2002–2004 period. The government’s funding priorities in nanobiotechnology are as follows: diagnosis; control of the nanoscale; therapy; and cancer research.

Although still in its infancy, nanobiotechnology in Korea is rapidly growing, particularly with respect to research on biochips and sensors. Nanomaterials such as quantum dots, gold nanoparticles, nanofluidics, and carbon nanotubes are also being exploited in various biological applications. Point-of-care BioMEMS technology, for instance, which blends biosensors and biofluidics, has recently become the center of attention in Korea. In addition to studying the construction of nanobio-devices, researchers in various government research institutes and universities have been studying detection and control methods, such as nanoscale-blood analysis (KIMM), detection of label-free protein-protein interaction (KRIBB), and piezoelectric biosensor systems (KIST). In spite of these developments, industrial investment in nanobiotechnology R&D is limited because the application of the technology is generally restricted to medical purposes.

Figure 5 shows the nanobiotechnology R&D expenditure of various

government ministries. Of the seven science-related ministries, the MOST was the biggest investor in nanobiotechnology R&D, followed by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE). In Korea, the MOST has the main responsibility for fostering the R&D of basic research and platform technology, whereas the MOCIE is focused on the R&D of industrial applications. The field of nanobiotechnology is still in the emerging phase, and major applications of current research are not expected to be defined for another 10 years. For the time being, therefore, nanobiotechnology is expected to be primarily funded by the MOST. Figure 6 shows the amount of nanobiotechnology funding available to universities, public research institutes, and private companies. In an emerging field such as nanobiotechnology, the public sector should lead the technological development. Nonetheless, the Korean government is strongly driving the national R&D in a direction that will induce more investment from the private sector. These efforts are expected to create new industries and new jobs and to enhance the competitiveness of the industry.

To maintain sustainable growth in the national economy for the next five to 10 years, Korea must encourage its main industries to strengthen their core competencies. Hence, to achieve this goal, the Korean government has recently designated 10 areas (that is, nine IT areas and one BT area) as the next-generation growth engine of future industries. The MOST will supervise the BT program in conjunction with other ministries such as the MOCIE, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare. For the BT program, the government has pledged to invest KRW1.02 trillion and the private sector has pledged KRW390 billion. The goal of the BT program is to raise the ranking of Korea’s bio-industry to seventh in the world by 2012, especially in the areas of biomedicine and artificial organ technologies. The government expects the program to produce export revenue in excess of USD20 billion, to create a thousand new

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jobs, and to raise Korea’s global market share to at least 7%. The BT program includes biochip technology, which is closely related to nanobiotechnology. Furthermore, the biochip program will support emerging technologies such as protein chips, lab-on-a-chip technology, and DNA chips for high-throughput medical screening and diagnosis.

Table 3 lists the major nanobiotechnology programs of government research institutes. As mentioned, the programs focus on the development of nano-medicine and biochips. Table 4 shows estimated market values of specific nanobiotechnology fields for the next 10 years. Technologies for diagnosis and therapy, such as nanobiomedical instruments, nanobiochips, and tissue engineering, are expected to be major players, and less thoroughly investigated areas, such as nanobio-engines, should soon begin to emerge.

Recently, the rapid growth of IT in Korea has prompted research on ubiquitous networks. The use of these networks in nanobiotechnology is expected to enable the realization of the next generation of ubiquitous health care and of environmental and safety service systems. This trend is likely to require an infrastructure for real-time networks and a complex structure of micro or nano-devices that can be used to collect information. The role of nanobiotechnology in ubiquitous health care and in environmental and safety services is to enable the development of wearable and implantable medical or environmental devices. In Korea, the research in these areas is dedicated to lab-on-a-chip technology, microfluidics, biosensors, and microarrays. Researchers are also actively investigating the integration of these tools into micromedical and environmental devices. Figure 8 summarizes the government’s current investments in the field of ubiquitous services. The Korean government emphasizes the development of module systems for and displays and ubiquitous health care.

Plan1st Phase(01-04)

2nd Phase(05-07)

3rd Phase(07-10)

Sum

Gov Civil Gov Civil Gov Civil Gov Civil Sum

R/D 203 44 232 137 232 206 667 387 1,045

ED/TRAINING 31 - 18 - 19 - 73 - 73

Infrastructure 64 28 28 11 23 10 116 49 164

Total 298 72 284 148 274 216 855 436 1,291

Carried out 2001 2002 2003 2004 Sum

R/D 79.27 132.88 136.45 154.96 503.56

ED/Training 2.49 28.72 51.96 61.34 144.24

Infrastructure 6.97 6.97 8.72 10.54 33.2

Total 88.73 168.57 197.13 226.84 681.27

Table 1. Investment for NT in Korea for 10 years (Unit M$).

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Table 2. R&D funding each program from related Department (Unit M$).

Department R&D Program 2002 2003 2004

MOST Tera-class Nano Devices 9 9 11

Nanostructured Materials and Technology 8 7 8

Nanoscale Mechatronics and Manufacturing 9 7 10

Core nanotechnology development 19 15 16

Photonic technology, next generation 1 1 -

Nano-information network - 1 1

IMT program fro nanotechnology 3 3 -

NT basic research program 19 22 21

National nano-fab center 22 34 12

Advanced nano-fab center - 26 34

Ultra short pulse photonic technology - 2 3

Next generation NMR facility 2 2 2

NT education and training program 1 2 4

Next generation Nanotechnology - - 16

Fusion technology - 7 7

Subtotal 93 138 145

MOCIE NT R&D program(10 projects) 14 50 42

Nanotechnology center - - 16

Core nano-material and parts - 1 2

NT industrialization center 3 4 6

Nanoparticle TIC 1 1 1

Metallic material TIC 1 1 -

Nano-machining TIC 1 1 -

Subtotal 20 58 67

MOIC IT-NT fusion technology 7 6 11

National Grid 4 5 5

IT research association - - 2

University IT research Center - - 1

Subtotal 11 11 19

MOEH Brain-Korea 21(Nanotech part) 6 6 6

MOHW Nano-Health Diagnosis 2 1 -

Nano material for medical - - 1

MOE Eco-technopia 21 16 18 19

MOD Application of nano-particle 0.1 0.4 0.6

MOA Nano-biotechnology for Agriculture 0.1 0.2 0.2

OPC National Laboratory 19 55 71

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Table 3. Major nanobiotechnology programs in the Korean national research institutes.

Institute Nanobio Project

Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) Micro/nano-biosystems

Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) Protein chip technology

Applications of bionanomaterials

Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) Nano-bio measurement

Table 4. Expected market values of specific nanobiotechnology fields in 10 years.

Division Area of R&D

MarketMarket share (2015 year, %)

2005Year(M$)

2015Year(M$)

Nanobio-diagnosis/

Purification

Field diagnosis nanobio chip

(Lab-on-a-Chip)43 15,300 40

Nanobio-therapy

Diagnosis implant nanobiosensor - 6,800 10Nano drug delivery material 3,900 2,300 60

Nanbio medical instrument 21,000 30,000 30

Nanobio-information:

Cell therapy / Tissue engineering

nanomaterial100 15,000 30

Diagnosis nanobio-electronic chip 100 1,000 30

Nanobio-engine

Nano living body electronic components

of 10 300 10

Nanobio fuel cell - - 100

Nanobio Engine - - 100

Limit control of

Nanobio/ Analysis

Nano robot - - 100Nano complex-Microscope - 970 40

Mimic nanobio product - 9,700 40

Valuation &

Standardization of

Nanobio technology

High sensitive detector for DNA and

Protein- 10 60

Database 2 19 10

Clinical demonstration Program 6 290 40

Indispensable of

nanobio

International standardization 2 50 30Food with nanomaterial 0 1950 ?

Custom smart food 0 9,700 ?

Nanobio for Primary

industry

Nano-cosmetic 970 2,900 70Nanocarrier of hormone / antibiotic for

fishery0 400 40

Safety monitoring 10 100 10

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Figure 1. Government investments for R&D of 6T in 2005.

Figure 2. Location of Nano-Fab Centers & Nano Clusters in Korea.

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Figure 3. Government R&D investment in nanotechnology fields (2002–2004).

Figure 4. Estimated government R&D expenditures in various specific nanobiotechnology fields in 2002–2004.

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Figure 5. Government R&D expenditures in various government ministries.

Figure 6. Funding size for nanobiotechnology in universities, public research institutions and companies.

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Figure 7. Ubiquitous (U) service & system funding and convergence technology.

Contact Details:

Contact Person: Bong Hyun Chung

Address: BioNanotechnology Research Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Yuseong, Daejeon 305-600, South Korea.

Email: [email protected]

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Nanobiotechnology R&D Strategy in the Republic of Korea€¦ · of these technologies. The 6Ts refer to information technology (IT), biotechnology (BT), nanotechnology (NT), engineering