KEY RESEARCH PROJECTS

1. Magnetic nanoparticle-based drug delivery for COVID-19 treatment (2021- 2023)

Project goal: Fabricating nanoparticle-based biologics, mechanism study, and efficacy tests.

Major roles:

• Experimental design, COVID-19 animal model, data acquisition, and analysis.

• Report writing, manuscript preparation,  and presenting the research outcomes in the scientific community.  

2. Plasma metabolomic and lipidomic profiles in EAE pathogenesis (2018- 2021) 

Project goal:  Time-kinetic plasma metabolomic and lipidomic profiles and identification of early biomarkers

Major roles:

• Research proposal, experimental design, and communication with the collaborators.

• Data acquisition and analysis.

• Report writing, manuscript preparation,  and presenting the research outcomes in the scientific community.  

3. Quantitative brain proteome map of EAE mice (2016- 2019) 

Project goal:  Build a proteome map of the biological changes that occur during MS at the major onset sites—the brain and the spinal cord.

Major roles:

• Design and perform the animal experiment and induce the EAE disease model.

• Biochemical analysis. Preparing tissue samples for proteomic study. 

• Data acquisition and analysis.

• Report writing, manuscript preparation,  and presenting the research outcomes in the scientific community.  

4. Method development for routine analysis of gene doping for athletes (2017-2018)

Project goal: Establishment of laboratory set up for gene doping analysis (e.g., EPO doping) and obtain accreditation from the world anti-doping agency (WADA).

Major roles:

• Establishing the gene doping laboratory set up for routing analysis of EPO genes from athletes

•  Accreditation of the methods prepared for Pyeongchang Olympic’2018, Korea

5. Doping tests for athletes (2014-2018)

• Doping Test for Universiade Gwangju 2015 (01/05/15 - 03/09/15)

• Doping Test for Incheon Asian Para Games 2014 (12/08/14 - 24/11/14)

• Doping Test for Incheon Asian Game 2014 (16/06/14 - 14/11/14)

• Doping Test for PyeongChang Olympic and paralympic games 2018 (01/02/18 - 30/03/18)

Major roles: 

• Preparation of urine samples and screening of results for the presence of prohibited drug lists by LC-MS/MS (e.g., diuretics and masking agents beta-2 agonist, hormone and metabolic modulators)

6. Biomarkers for experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in obese and aging mice (2011-2018)

Project goal:  Exploring how obesity affects the severity of multiple sclerosis and the underlying mechanisms. Identify important biomarkers of the obesity-EAE and aging-EAE interaction.

Major roles:

• Induction of EAE in mice by immunization with peptide, isolation of anatomical brain regions.

• Neurochemical analysis of brain neurotransmitters and signaling molecules.

• Immunoassays for cytokines and chemokines; enzyme activities by luminescence spectrophotometer.

• RNA isolation, purification, cDNA microarray, pathway analysis of DEGs, real-time RT-PCR.

• Reporting and documentation of the data through publishing in renowned international journals

7. Discovery of anti-obesity agents against novel therapeutic target (2010-2012)

Project goal:  Discovery of new anti-obesity agents acting on 5-HT2C receptor

Major roles:

• Animal experiments by acute and chronic administration of 5-HT2C receptor ligands. Pharmacokinetic study and analysis of tissue neurotransmitters by using HPLC-ECD, etc. 

8. Toxicity assessment of quantum-dot nanoparticles (QD-NP) (2010-2013)

Project goal: Toxicity assessment and bio-distribution of quantum-dot nanoparticles 

Major roles:

• • Administration of QD-NP in the precision-cut spleen of rat and check uptake of NP.

  • Intravenous and Intraperitoneal administration of QD-NP in BALBC mice.

  • H &E staining for tissue damage and fluorescence microscopy for the uptake of QD-NP.

  • LDH and NADPH oxidase activity assay by using a UV spectrometer.