South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea chosen Lee Yoon-sil (이윤실), a professor at Seoul National University Graduate School of Dentistry, because the May winner of the Korea Science and Technology Award, the ministry stated on Tuesday.
The ministry and the inspiration chosen Lee for securing clues to fixing bone illnesses which might be quickly rising in an period of ageing, and for contributing to enhancing public well being, as half of Family Month.
Most current medicine for bone illness deal with sufferers by stopping bone loss. In uncommon instances, there are issues about unwanted side effects with long-term use. That makes a drug vacation essential after a sure interval of remedy. Lee introduced a brand new mitochondria-based remedy methodology that restores broken bone whereas lowering these unwanted side effects and remedy gaps.
To show that mitochondria play a task in selling bone formation in osteoblasts, Lee developed genetically modified mice by which inexperienced fluorescent protein is expressed solely in osteoblast mitochondria. Using them, she noticed in actual time that when osteoblasts are activated, mitochondria change right into a donut form and are then secreted outdoors the cell within the type of small vesicles.
She confirmed that transplanting mitochondria secreted by osteoblasts into areas of bone defects promoted differentiation of osteoprogenitor cells and sped up bone regeneration. This demonstrated that mitochondria play an essential position as a core promoter that transmits intercellular alerts and induces tissue regeneration.
Lee improved the precision and reproducibility of bone regeneration research by exactly extracting solely osteoblasts from the bones of genetically modified mice. She additionally secured foundational technology within the subject by registering 6 patents in South Korea and the United States associated to mitochondria-based therapeutic technology and submitting 11 extra.
Lee produced the outcomes with help from the ministry’s Mid-career Research Program and Basic Research Laboratory program. The research was chosen as the duvet paper of the February 2023 concern of Cell Metabolism, a world journal within the subject of metabolic biology.
Lee stated, “Through this research, I ultimately want to present a new approach to treating musculoskeletal diseases.” She added, “My goal is to open an era in which treatments that restore damaged tissue become widespread, beyond simply slowing the progression of disease.”