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Internationalization: Max Planck Tests the Korean Waters

* Link : http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/328/5977/414-b Internationalization: Max Planck Tests the Korean Waters Dennis Normile and Gretchen Vogel In another sign of the Max Planck Society's desire to extend its reach beyond Germany, it is negotiating with Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) to establish two joint research centers there. The South Korean side would like to see the centers evolve into a full-fledged Max Planck Institute. But because of some hard-learned lessons, Max Planck is being cautious about its commitment, and officials warn that the deal is not finalized. "We need to make sure that when Max Planck is on the label outside, that it's really on the inside, too," says Berthold Neizert, head of the Max Planck Society's (MPG's) international division. The matchmaker behind the growing ties between MPG and South Korea is theoretical physicist Peter Fulde, a former director of the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden. In 2007, Fulde became a POSTECH professor and president of the Asia Pacific Center for Theoretical Physics (APCTP), housed on the POSTECH campus. At APCTP, Fulde helped establish an independent program for junior research groups co-sponsored by Max Planck. As visits increased between MPG and POSTECH, the parties agreed in January 2009 to study setting up the centers. If cleared by MPG's scientific evaluation, which is expected to be completed in the next month, one of the centers would focus on attosecond spectroscopy, which uses lasers to study the dynamics of electrons. The other would add two new beamlines to a current $100 million upgrade to the Pohang Light Source to characterize and analyze new materials. POSTECH and MPG researchers are already cooperating in these areas, and "with the centers, there will be more of an impact," says Fulde. Both sides see advantages. "What we like is the tremendous drive [in Korea]. There is so much potential there," says Neizert. "Korea is now trying to focus on creative research excellence, and this will be a very good opportunity for Korean groups to work hand in hand with top groups from Max Planck," says Kim Seunghwan, a POSTECH physicist involved in setting up the centers. Kim says they expect that the two centers will eventually have 100 Ph.D.-level researchers, including up to 30 newly recruited junior scientists, and $30 million in funding over 5 years. Details have not been finalized. Neizert says budget questions are still under discussion, but funding would come from both partners. POSTECH had hoped to create a full MPG institute, but MPG held back. Fulde says that although South Korean and German scientists cooperate very effectively in the lab, the two countries have different approaches to managing research. In South Korea, "funding is in little boxes, so to speak, and [authorities] look into each box," Fulde says. "In Germany, there is much more flexibility in the financing system." Such differences have tripped up some of Max Planck's previous international endeavors, such as the Partner Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai, a joint venture with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Science, 9 November 2007, p. 902). After a rocky start, most of the management issues have now been smoothed out. "Shanghai is running really well, and the science is absolutely tops," says Neizert. "But at the same time, we had to invest so much time and energy to make sure [the Max Planck] label fit." Neizert says that label means that no matter where in the world a Max Planck institute is located, "the governance needs to be like it is in Germany, with the scientific directors having full independence and long-term financial security." Max Planck and POSTECH did discuss the idea of an institute. "But we felt it was simply premature," Neizert says. Kim says they have agreed to evaluate results of this Max Planck Korea Initiative in 5 years. Korea is the latest example of MPG's push for international cooperation. The Max Planck Florida Institute in Jupiter opened in 2009, and a Max Planck Center focused on computer science was inaugurated in India in February. "Internationalization has been a central issue for [Max Planck president] Peter Gruss," Neizert says. The society is in talks about similar collaborations with institutes and universities in at least three other countries.

[KIM SEONG-KON]Campuses as English-only zones

* Link : http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2010/02/24/201002240048.asp As Korean universities strive to become world-class universities, the number of courses instructed in English has dramatically increased as of late. Some universities require that even the departments of Korean literature and Korean history offer courses taught in English. Some professors are in favor of these "globalizing" changes, while others are doubtful. Amid the controversy, Pohang University of Science and Technology or POSTECH recently announced that it will transform into an English-only zone within three years. Beginning this spring semester, most undergraduate courses and all graduate seminars at POSTECH will be instructed in English. Students, too, are required to speak in English in class and write papers and dissertations in English. Furthermore, all conferences and even faculty meetings will be conducted in English and all university documents will be printed in both Korean and English. The innovative decision of POSTECH was immediately welcomed by international scholars and students who had been frustrated by severe language barriers and bureaucratic apathy on many Korean university campuses. "If other Korean universities follow POSTECH," said an international student at SNU, "we will have a variety of courses to choose from and a chance to earn better grades." "I wish I could understand what's going on at faculty meetings," confessed an international professor teaching at a Korean university. Considering the challenges foreigners face at Korean universities, the foreigner-friendly policy of POSTECH deserves applause. Besides, the new environment will definitely attract more international students and scholars. Currently at POSTECH, international students only make up 2.2 percent of the student population and international faculty make up 7.2 percent of the faculty. With the new policy, however, the university hopes to increase its international student population to 10 percent and its international faculty population to 25.6 percent within three years. Some patriots assert that international students and scholars should learn the Korean language, just as a Korean student must learn a foreign language when studying or teaching in a foreign country. "Why do we have to use English for foreign students and scholars?" They complain. "They don't do that for us when we go to their country." These patriots often forget the fact that many international students and scholars are not from English-speaking countries. Besides, English is a common language today used in the fields of science and technology, the humanities, social sciences and not to mention the internet. So these patriots' objections to the English zone are not necessarily valid. However, more persuasive objections come from those who are doubtful of the quality of courses taught in English. Experts have pointed out that a class taught in English will not be beneficial to students if the professor's command of English is not good enough. The fact is most Korean professors, who are non-native speakers of English, are not ready to teach in English yet. If you force them to teach in English, the results will be disastrous. Similarly, students who do not have a good command of English will also suffer. Recently I received a questionnaire sent out to professors who teach in English. One of the questions was "What do you think is the most serious problem of teaching in English?" Embarrassingly, possible answer choices included: "The anxiety that students may not understand my English due to my heavy accent and inaccurate pronunciation" and, "In my class, there are too many students whose English is not good enough to attend an English course." If such issues are still at stake, universities are definitely not ready to offer courses in English. A professor who teaches courses in English should be capable of fluently lecturing for at least an hour without a manuscript or prior preparations. Students, too, should be able to participate in class discussions freely and write papers in fair, if not impeccable, English. In the field of science and technology, which transcends the boundaries of language, using English as an official language may not be too problematic. For the humanities, however, things are a little more complicated; both professors and students should be able to freely verbalize their thoughts and discuss in-depth, abstract ideas in English. But such fluency is not easy to achieve. As for faculty meetings, it would be quite awkward if Korean professors were forced to speak in not-so-fluent, broken English. In order to become truly world-class institutions of higher learning, Korean universities must "go global"; we need to invite international students and scholars actively, warmly accept them as one of us and offer more courses instructed in English. How then can we solve the various problems of creating English-only zones? As a first step, we should hire more international faculty members from English-speaking countries so that we can offer quality courses taught in English. Consequently, we can improve our native students' English proficiency and foster a new generation of professors who can offer excellent teaching in English. Instead of rushing to create radical and immediate change, let us progressively transform our campuses, ensuring that any changes will enhance, not hinder, our academic advancement. Kim Seong-kon is a professor of English at Seoul National University and director of the Seoul National University Press. - Ed.

POSTECH Out to 'Buy' Nobel Laureates

* Link : http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/02/117_61241.html Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in Pohang City, North Gyeongsang Province, has unveiled a 150 billion won project to push itself to join the ranks of the world's top 50 universities. Its plan centers around hiring 10 Nobel Prize or Fields Medal winners in science and math, and setting up a world-class education environment by spending a total of 150 billion won over the next three years. It is the second initiative to be announced by President Baik Sung-gi in recent days. However, the school's plan appears to be lacking detail. The school didn't respond to repeated inquiries by The Korea Times regarding how they will attract and retain 10 Nobel Prize winners and raise the large amount of money required for the project. Ewha Womans University currently has the largest number of Nobel Prize laureates among universities here at four, who are working as research partners. Many Korean universities have sought to attract more world-renowned professors under the government-supported project "World Class University," but the average stay of such foreign scholars is only four months, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. According to some foreign faculty members currently in Seoul, many of them have difficulty in adapting themselves and their families to life here due to language barriers. Although POSTECH didn't elaborate further on the project, it aims to be listed among the world's top 50 universities by 2013 and guarantees 5 billion won for each three-year period to a Nobel Award-winning professor. In addition, faculty members will be encouraged to work with overseas research teams and the university will invite more foreign graduate students for research projects. Another 50 billion won will be invested for a fusion research center. From March, it will conduct all courses in English and require all students to speak only English on campus. Professors and staff members must speak in English during conferences. All documents, materials and signs at the university will be written in both Korean and English. All administration offices at each department will have staff members who can speak English fluently. "This is to attract foreign professors and students. We will help them to not to have any problems while living here," a school official said. Under the plan, 45 percent of the university's professors will be foreign nationals by next year. To reach its goal, the university this year began to hire equal numbers of Korean and foreign academics. The school will reveal its plans to create an English-friendly campus next month.

Korea’s POSTECH Explores Nanotechnology Frontiers

* Link : http://www.nanoscienceworks.org/articles/korea2019s-postech-explores-nanotechnology-frontiers Korea’s POSTECH Explores Nanotechnology Frontiers Just over two years after the establishment of one of Korea's most noted nanotechnology education and research center, the National Center for Nanomaterials and Technology (NCNT) at POSTECH or Pohang University of Science and Technology, NanoScienceWorks.org is pleased to feature an interview with Prof Yoon-Ha Jeong, visionary founder of NCNT and VP of Research at POSTECH. *************************************************** Korea’s POSTECH: Exploring the Frontiers of Nanotechnology An NanoScineceWorks.org Interview with Prof. Yoon-Ha Jeong, founder of POSTECH’s National Center for Nanomaterials Technology (NCNT) ********************************************************** On May 30, 2007, Pohang University of Science and Technology, one of the major schools in Korea, celebrated the opening of its new institute, National Center for Nanomaterials and Technology (NCNT), with Roh Moo-hyun, the President of Korea, among the distinguished guests. Since that time, NCNT has distinguished itself as a world leading nanoscience center, with a focus on: development of next generation nanomaterials, innovative research and analytical techniques with a focus on multi-discipline nanoscience, a commitment to nurture venture companies and to create new businesses. The NCNT has also contributed greatly to accelerating the advancement of Korean high technology training and education techniques, and participated in a number of joint projects with Korean state-of-the-art institutes, researchers, and private corporations including POSCO, the nation’s leading steel manufacturer . NanoScienceWorks.org is pleased to feature an interview with Prof. Yoon-Ha Jeong, the founder of NCNT and VP of Research, POSTECH. Then interviewer is Dr M. Meyyappan, one of NASA’s leading experts on nanotechnology and Chief Scientist for Exploration Technology at NASA Ames' Center for Nanotechnology. Dr Meyyappan is also co-author of Inorganic Nanowires: Applications, Properties, and Characterization, published by Taylor and Francis. Q: Briefly describe Korea’s POSTECH (Pohang University of Science and Technology), for our NanoScienceWorks.org readers? Yoon-Ha Jeong: Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH, http://www.postech.ac.kr) is located in Pohang in the southeastern part of S. Korea near Busan. It is a private university founded in 1986 by POSCO (www.posco.com), the second largest iron and steel company in the world today. We have about 3000 students (1300 undergraduate and 1700 graduate students) in various science and engineering programs. In addition, POSTECH has several government and POSCO funded research centers including National Center for Nanomaterials Technology (NCNT, http://www.nano.or.kr), Pohang Accelerator Laboratory (PAL, http://pal.postech.ac.kr/), POSTECH Information Research Laboratories (PIRL, http://www.postech.ac.kr/pirl), Pohang Institute of Intelligent Robotics (PIRO, www.piro.re.kr), POSTECH BioTech Center (PBC, http://pbc.postech.ac.kr), Graduate Institute of Ferrous Technology (GIFT) and several others. We like to think of POSTECH as CALTECH of Korea. We are currently ranked 134th in the QS/The Times world university rankings. However, we are ranked 11th in the world in the # of citations/faculty category. Q: Since it opened in May 2007, POSTECH’s National Center for Nanomaterials Technology (NCNT) has distinguished itself in many areas. Tell us about your NCNT and your latest nanotechnology research? Yoon-Ha Jeong: Following the US NNI, the Korean Government started our own focused nanotechnology initiative which has been providing consistent research funding for individual and large group of investigators. We at POSTECH got funding from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) to establish NCNT. This is a world class facility which has a full 8” wafer silicon fab line, all the facilities to process III-V devices, extensive characterization facilities and everything one would need to conduct nano R&D. We have faculty from various science and engineering departments as members of NCNT. We have a strong industrial participation with several small companies incubated from and residing at NCNT. We have about 106 industrial sponsors and collaborators including Samsung, LG and POSCO. Sample projects include III-V power devices, organic light emitting diodes and thin film transistors for displays, growth and characterization of CNTs, nanowires and quantum dots, CNT electronics, Si nanowire devices, sensor development, and LIGA process based NEMS. The major focus of Korean Nano community is exploring the early commercialization of nanotechnology based materials and devices, and that is why the government has supported establishing the NCNT at POSTECH. So, the prime goal of NCNT is supporting the industry for commercial products development from materials to preproduction. As for the academia, NCNT helps more with basic research and analysis in devices, materials and technologies such as displays, electronics, memory and others. Q: POSTECH was recently recognition by World Class University (WCU) Program of the Korean Government for scholarship and research on convergence of nano, bio and information technologies. Tell us about your noteworthy approach? Yoon-Ha Jeong: POSTECH was selected out of a stiff competition to start a WCU program on IT-Convergence Engineering (ITCE, http://itce.postech.ac.kr) and the first class of graduate students started in September 2009. The Principal Investigator of the Founding Team and Head of the new Division of ITCE is Professor James Won-Ki Hong. The ITCE consists of 14 POSTECH faculty members from the EE and Computer Science and Engineering Departments, in addition to 7 Distinguished visiting faculty members from USA, Canada, France and Germany. The focus is on convergence of IT-BT-NT with U-Health and U-environment as two main themes. The ‘U’ stands for ubiquitous. For this purpose, the combined expertise from the domestic and our visiting faculty includes nanomaterials, nano devices and sensors, autonomics, communication, networking, and bioinformatics. The ITCE students get full scholarship, opportunity to be taught and supervised by distinguished, world-renowned scholars and access to outstanding world class experimental facilities. We are currently recruiting world top quality graduate students and post-doctoral fellows to join this exciting new program. Those interested should visit the ITCE website (http://itce.postech.ac.kr). One of the first focused project is a Bio-FET (field effect transistor) as a biosensor using silicon nanowires. The first application is for hepatitis C since our bio colleagues have an aptamer based probe for this target. Eventually, different types of biosensors, chemical sensors, lab-on-a-chip analysis and integration with signal processing chip will feed into the U-Health network development. The U-Health network is already getting setup. A team headed by Professor Nazim Agoulmine of University of Evry in Paris and Professor Jamal Deen of McMaster University is currently setting up such a networked home (we call it a SmartHome) for elderly. We are hoping that our nano sensors combined with their advances in networking, communication and autonomics would make our U-Health approach highly effective. Beyond these, we have a program on nanowire based phase change random access memory (NW-PCRAM). My group, along with Professor Jeong-Soo Lee, takes care of the nano aspects of the ITCE. And we have the distinction of Dr. Meyya Meyyappan as our partner in all these efforts. We also have graphene electronics and THz electronics programs being initiated. Q: You must be excited with all this attention from government official and other nano researchers. How do you feel your POSTECH programs might change the landscape for nano research and commercialization? Yoon-Ha Jeong: Even though Korea is very strong in semiconductor industry, the reticle cost of 45nm process or below is beyond what university professors can manage. Since NCNT capabilities can define devices below 32nm with e-beam lithograpgy, it can provide cost effective nanoscale device processing. Monolayer or multiple atomic layers can be formed with atomic layer deposition process, and together with litho tools, new experimental devices can be realized. That is the reason many professors are excited about the potential and eagerly joined the facility as users. PAL (Pohang Accelerator Laboratory) is located right next to NCNT. Various beam lines are available for analysis and creation of new materials. All these possibilities of infrastructure utilization and collaborative technology development motivate the industry and academia to get involved in our NCNT. The expectation from the government and industry, and from our own university management is very high. As I mentioned earlier, we have as many as 106 companies sponsoring and/or collaborating in our research programs including every big Korean company. One recent success story I can tell you about involves development of ultrasmall power devices and a company located inside NCNT we have worked with on this, has become a major Korean exporter in this domain.

[ITCE Distinguished Lecture] Prof. Donhee Ham

Carbon Nanotubes May Be Used to Treat Cancer

* Link : http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2009/11/123_56084.html Carbon nanotubes, known for their remarkable properties that can be used for advanced electronics and materials, appear to have the potential to be used for combating cancer as well, local scientists said Tuesday. A research team led by Kosin University's Lee Sang-ho and Pohang University of Science and Technology's (POSTECH) Choi Hee-cheul claimed to have discovered a method to allow carbon nanotubes to be used as agents for photo-thermal therapy in a study published by peer-reviewed journal, American Chemical Society (ACS) Nano. The method showed promising results when tested on lab mice, the scientists said. "The injection of a large amount of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have shown the ability to target and destroy tumor cells in mice, through the heat produced upon excitation by near-infrared light," Lee said. "We will now pursue clinical trials to see if the method works on humans." Carbon nanotubes are hollow cylinders of carbon just one atom thick. Photo-thermal therapy, still considered an experimental approach, is based on using electromagnetic radiation for treating cancer and other medical conditions. Carbon nanotubes are an ideal candidate as photo-thermal therapeutic agents since they generate a significant amount of heat when exposed to near-infrared light, the researchers said. To test the method, the researchers transplanted human throat and stomach cancer cells into 40 mice. Some of the animals were injected with singled-walled carbon nanotubes and then were exposed to near-infrared light irradiation, from a source about 10 centimeters away. The tumor cells in the treated mice were completely destroyed, and the animals experienced no harmful side effects or recurrence of tumors after 6 months. The tumor cells in other groups of mice grew continuously until their death. Most of the carbon nanotubes in the treated mice were excreted from their bodies within two months through the passing of urine, the researchers said. thkim@koreatimes.co.kr

POSTECH Has Lowest College Dropout Rate

* Link : http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/10/117_52814.html Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) has the lowest dropout rate among 188 universities. According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Thursday, POSTECH had 17 students give up their studies at the university last year, out of a total of 1,711 ― 1 percent of the total student body. The average dropout rate among institutes of higher education, including 2-year and 3-year colleges, stood at 5 percent. Among those who left their original schools, 44 percent voluntarily withdrew, 33 percent didn't return after taking a leave of absence, and 17 percent failed to pay tuition. ``Our university enrolls a small number of students, so we can offer tailor-made education, and most of them are under scholarships. Mentors, including professors, are assisting our students, who need to get through a heavy workload, so that they can adapt to our school,'' said Choi Hyu-young, a public relations officer at POSTECH. Seoul National University came in second at 1.2 percent and Yonsei University third at 1.3 percent. Korea University was fifth at 1.5 percent. The fact that the top schools are enjoying low dropout rates seems to support the conventional wisdom that students in these schools often have a better chance of getting well-paying jobs after graduation than those in second-tier schools, although ministry officials didn't provide specific details about the reasons for dropouts. However, Korea University topped the list in terms of regular-payroll employment among four-year universities, at 67.4 percent. In terms of research expenses per fulltime faculty member, Seoul National University was the leader in liberal arts at 79 million won, and POSTECH topped the field in science and engineering at 580 million won. POSTECH also provides the second-largest amount of scholarship money per student. kswho@koreatimes.co.kr

To Sleep, Perchance to Dream: New insight into melatonin production

In the April1 issue of G&D, a Korean research team led by Dr. Kyong-Tai Kim (POSTECH) describes how melatonin production is coordinated with the body‘s natural sleep/wake cycles. Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland in the brain, which helps to regulate our bodies’ circadian rhythm (the roughly-24-hour cycle around which basic physiological processes proceed). Normally, melatonin production is inhibited by light and enhanced by darkness, usually peaking in the middle of the night. Melatonin‘s expression pattern is mimicked by a protein called AANAT, which is a key enzyme in the melatonin biosynthesis pathway. Dr. Kim and colleagues uncovered the mechanism of rhythmic control of AANAT mRNA translation, and thereby melatonin synthesis. The researchers found that rodent AANAT mRNA translation is mediated by IRES elements in the 5‘ end of the transcript, through binding of another protein, called hnRNP Q. In fact, siRNA knock-down of hnRNP Q reduced AANAT and melatonin production under nocturnal conditions. This rhythmic translational mechanism of AANAT mRNA is a novel aspect for generating the circadian rhythmicity of vertebrate melatonin and can contribute to develop a possible way to treat sleep disorder-related diseases.

Efficacious drug transporters

First drug delivery method developed for mitochondrial diseases What do Huntington’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease (familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; the disease the physicist Stephen Hawking is suffering from) and Alzheimer’s disease have in common? The answer is mitochondria; these diseases are now called mitochondrial diseases. These incurable degenerative neurological or neuromuscular diseases, together with apoptosis (programmed cell death) and aging, are understood to occur largely at mitochondria sites. What then are mitochondria? Mitochondria (plural of mitochondrion) are part (organelle) of every cell in the body that contains genetic material. Mitochondria are responsible for processing oxygen thus converting foodstuff we eat into energy in the form of ATP for essential cellular functions; hence mitochondria are called “the powerhouse” of cells. Mitochondria are the only other organelle than nucleus that contains DNA. Nuclear DNA has two copies per cell (except for sperm and egg), and each copy is inherited from the father and the mother. However, mitochondria contain their own DNA (ca. 1 percent of the total DNA), typically 5-10 copies, all inherited from the mother! Mitochondrial medicine is an important newly developing medical subspecialty dealing with the mitochondrial diseases. However, development of therapeutic agents in this area has been extremely slow, at least in part, due to the lack of an appropriate means of delivering a drug selectively to mitochondria. Now this dire situation may change for the better. Professor Sung-Kee Chung of Department of Chemistry and his coworkers in the Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Lab recently reported their progress in developing organelle selective drug delivery vectors in Angewandte Chemie, a premier chemical research journal. (Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 5880) In this paper Dr. Chung and his team describe the design and synthesis of the first molecular transporters that show high intracellular selectivity toward mitochondria. Human tissues and organs, especially the central nervous system including the brain, are tightly guarded by various security barriers. Any effective therapeutic agent must penetrate into these security blankets in order to have the desired curative effects. Thus, for the treatment of the neurological and neuromuscular mitochondrial diseases a drug should overcome the blood brain barrier and selectively target mitochondria. The newly developed drug transporters which are based on the sorbitol scaffold, a sugar-like molecule have shown to be capable of achieving these two goals. “In the following phase of research we will try to actually demonstrate, in collaboration with many biologists and doctors, the efficacy of this technology by delivering therapeutic agents and genes to mitochondrial sites of diseased neural cells.” Dr. Chung said. Professor Sung-Kee Chung Department of Chemistry Email: skchung@postech.ac.kr Phone: +82-54-279-2103

Wonders of nature

Practical recombinant hybrid mussel bioadhesive What man-made good exists that provides us both life’s necessity and luxury? A popular seafood cuisine, mussels are enjoyed all around the world. They can be smoked, boiled, or steamed to be served alone or as an ingredient of a larger dish. It can also produce beautiful pearls and jewelry. Now scientists have discovered another use for this nature’s gift. Professor Hyung Joon Cha and his team at the Department of Chemical Engineering have developed a novel type of practical recombinant hybrid bioadhesive material that originates from marine mussels. Mussels produce and secrete specialized adhesives that work in water allowing them to attach themselves in rough marine environments. These mussel adhesive proteins (MAPs) have been studied as a potential source of water-resistant bioadhesives for the past 25 years. They adhere tightly to substrata using the byssus, which is secreted from their foot and comprises of a bundle of threads. At the end of each thread, there is an adhesion plaque containing a water-resistant adhesive that enables the plaque to anchor to wet, solid surfaces. Strong and water-insoluble mussel adhesives have attracted interest for potential uses in biotechnological applications because they could be used as cell, tissue, or medical adhesives and have the added advantage of being environmentally friendly. This adhesion plaque is composed of five distinct types of protein ? foot proteins type 1 (fp-1) to type 5 (fp-5). At present, Cell-Tak, a mixture of extracted MAPs and comprising mainly fp-1 and fp-2 are the only commercially available MAPs. However, the methods by which these MAPs are produced are inefficient and uneconomical: about 10,000 mussels are required to obtain one gram of Cell-Tak. As a result, high production costs can limit use, and they are only used as cell and tissue-culture adhesion agents. Therefore, recombinant DNA technology has been used and mass production of MAPs has been attempted in several expression systems. However, attempts to produce a functional MAP have failed for several reasons. Even though recombinant fp-1 decapeptide repeats have been successfully expressed as insoluble inclusion bodies in E. coli and extracted using acetic acid solution, their adhesion properties have not been fully addressed. From the mid-1990s, attempts have also been made to produce synthetic polypeptide mimics of fp-1, but these mimics have not shown biocompatibility data. Fp-5 and fp-3, which are located at the interface between the substratum and the adhesion plaque of mussels, have been discovered during the past 10 years and they have been found to contain high levels of DOPA (L-3,4-dihydroxyphenyl alanine); indeed, the DOPA content is linearly correlated with the adhesion strength of MAPs. Previously, we have successfully shown that recombinant fp-5 with functional adhesion properties can be produced from Escherichia coli. Especially, recombinant fp-5 showed superior adhesion ability to Cell-Tak. However, soluble expression of recombinant fp-5 inhibited cell growth and led to a low production yield. Purification of fp-5 was also found to be complicated due to its adhesive property and the purification yield was very low. In addition, recombinant fp-5 was highly insoluble in aqueous buffer after purification, and thus, preparation of the highly concentrated solution required for practical use was not possible. In this research, to overcome several of the limitations of previous MAPs, Professor Cha and his team designed and produced the novel type of hybrid MAP fp-151, which is a fusion protein comprising six fp-1 decapeptide repeats added to the N- and C-termini of fp-5 in E. coli cells. Using micro- and bulk-scale characterization and mammalian/human cell-adhesion analyses, they demonstrated that hybrid fp-151 has the potential to be a practical bioadhesive with strong adhesive ability (~10 kg subject can be attached on 1 cm2 area using 40 mg hybrid fp-151), a simple purification process (~1 g-purified protein per 1 liter-pilot-scale fed-batch bioreactor culture), proper manipulation properties (~300 g/l solubility), and high biocompatibility. This novel hybrid mussel bioadehsive materials are now in commercialization stage as cell and tissue bioadhesive (first item) under collaboration with Kollodis Biosciences. This research was published in Biomaterials (August) and funded by the National R&D Project for Useful Materials from Marine Organisms from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Korea. Professor Hyung Joon Cha Department of Chemical Engineering Email: hjcha@postech.ac.kr Phone: +82-54-279-2280