Professor Han-Soo Park's research team has successfully developed and commercialized probiotics that inhibit cancer and obesity

□ Professor Han-Soo Park of Department of Biomedical Science and Engineering at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST, President Seung Hyeon Moon) has succeeded in finding intestinal microorganisms the inhibit cancer and obesity in experiments using mouse models.

□ Microbiome is a compound word of microbiota  and genome and refers to "the whole genetic information of microorganisms living in our body" or to "microorganisms living in our bodies." The largest number--as well as the most diverse--microorganisms reside in the intestines, and these intestinal microbiomes affect the incidence of various diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, cancer, asthma, and intestinal diseases.

∘ Anticancer immunotherapy drugs treat cancer by promoting immune function. It was widely known that former US President Jimmy Carter treated melanoma with immunotherapy. However, such drugs have a disadvantage in that not all cancer patients have therapeutic benefits from immunotherapy.

□ The researchers constructed a mouse model mouse to isolate strains that enhance anticancer efficacy when combined with an anticancer agent and compared the results to an immunotherapeutic agent when probiotics were administered alone. They also constructed a mouse model for obesity and found strains inhibiting obesity when combined with high-fat diets and probiotics.

□It is expected that cancer and obesity - inhibiting probiotics will contribute to reducing obesity, which is increasing in prevalence due and eating habits and cancer, which is the number one cause of death in Korea.

□ GIST Professor Han-Soo Park said, "Probiotics may be combined with immunotherapeutic drugs to improve anticancer results. In patients who have not been treated with immunotherapy alone, probiotics may have anticancer benefits. Some of the anticancer drugs may cause cardiac toxicity, infertility, and may have fatal side effects. Using probiotics may decrease the dose of anticancer drugs and reduce those side effects. The adult obesity population in Korea has steadily increased from 26% in 1997 to 33.2% in 2015, and the social costs are rising. This study will lead to the development of biotechnology drugs with world-class competitiveness"

□ Professor Han-Soo Park has founded the venture company Genome & Co. based on his research achievements, and it is developing probiotics and anticancer drugs for clinical use. They are conducting clinical research with university hospitals in Korea and are developing a new paradigm-based probiotic excavation system by studying the cancer-obesity link.