Shin Dong-hwa,
Chairman of NKCL Bio Group
◆ Please
give us a brief introduction of yourself.
Hello,
this is SHIN, DONG-HWA, the president of NKCL Bio Group Inc. NKCL Bio Group Inc.
is a company that leads the "Personalized Immune Care" market by
expanding its business area from various angles by expanding research
institutes for NK cell R&D, establishing a GMP automatic cell culture
center, and commercializing microbiome food. The human body is composed of
various immune cells, which defend against diseases and heal by controlling
excessive immunity, such as autoimmune diseases. Treatment using these NK
immune cells is becoming a new hope.
NKCL
Bio Group Inc. has secured an NK immune cell treatment platform with the functionality
of immune enhancement and immune control, and is striving to develop more
effective NK cell therapy by combining automatic culture technology. As a
company with respect for life as an ideology, we will continue to challenge and
strive to grow into a successful global company by strengthening research
capabilities based on industry-academic cooperation and playing a leading role
in developing NK immunotherapy. NKCL Bio Group Inc. asks for your interest and
support so that the group can become a global professional company.
◆ Please introduce
NKCL Bio Group Inc.
NKCL
Bio Group Inc. is a bio company that researches and develops immune cell
therapy using NK immune cells based on excellent technology. Through
differentiated immune cell culture technology, we are leading the
popularization of effective NK cell immunotherapy for cancer treatment and
immunity enhancement.
As
a representative company of the Korean immune brand, we are expanding global
marketing activities by introducing various immune care products and bio
programs that combine biotechnology and immunity, with the goal of ‘Save One Life,
One Soul’.
◆ What are the
main products of NKCL Bio Group Inc.?
The
main competitiveness of NKCL Bio Group Inc. is the NK immune cell automated culture
system. With the GMP automated culture system incorporating artificial
intelligence, it has found a culture environment optimized for each NK cell
culture by itself, replacing the existing high-level manpower and improving
production efficiency by more than 100 times.
In
addition, NKCL Bio Group provides a 'Personalized Immune Care Platform' that
encompasses the overall health promotion fields, from treatment and improvement
areas to various immune-enhancing products and programs, to provide
differentiated technological competitiveness, such as “targeted treatment,
automated NK cell culture system, etc.” Through this, we are advancing from the
global immuno-oncology market worthy of 100 billion dollars to the
anti-aging/beauty market.
◆What are ‘NK
cells’ and their functions in the human body?
Our
body has cells that defend against pathogens, foreign substances, and viruses
that invade from the outside, so they control the immune system or eat the
bacteria directly. These are called immune cells. NK cells are innate
lymphocyte cells with apoptotic activity. Unlike T cells and B cells, which
have antigen-specific receptors, NK cells express various innate immune
receptors on the cell surface, through which enables selective recognition of cancer
cells. It is a cell that shows cytotoxicity that can immediately eliminate
cancer cells without any other activation process, when cancer cells are recognized.
When NK cells recognize an abnormal cell, they spray perforin on the cell
membrane to melt it, thereby making a hole in the cell membrane, then spray
granzyme into the cell membrane to dismantle the cytoplasm, or inject water and
salt into the cell to cause cell death. When cancer cells are recognized, NK cells
can attack directly, but they also attack indirectly by secreting cytokines to
activate cytotoxic T cells and B cells.
◆Bill Gates
mentioned ‘immunotherapy, microbiome, and dementia treatment’ as three things
that will change the world. How is the current status and outlook for those sectors?
The
global immuno-oncology market is growing at a CAGR of 15%. It is in the
spotlight as a next-generation anticancer treatment without the side effects of
existing chemical anticancer drugs, and research is ongoing. Currently, it is
used together with existing chemical anticancer drugs, but in the near future,
it is expected to become a leader as of a standard anticancer treatment with its
minimal side effects.
Microsoft founder, Bill Gates once said, “The three things
that will change the world are the immunotherapy, the microbiome, and the
treatment of dementia.” In September 2017, relevant ministries such as the
Ministry of Science and ICT in Korea established and announced the ‘3rd Basic
Plan for the Promotion of Biotechnology’.
In the basic plan, the government decided to select the
microbiome as well as synthetic biology and gene editing as promising future
technology fields, and to promote ‘Hanwoomul’ research support in the form of competition.
Following the research results suggesting that the gut microbiome is related to
immunity, atopy, nervous system, many diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and
cancer, it is progressing in the direction of using the microbiome for disease
treatment and diagnosis. Accordingly, global pharmaceutical companies and bio
venture companies are moving rapidly to enter this market. In addition, ‘Fecal
microbiota transplant’ using the entire intestinal microbiome for the treatment
of diseases such as Clostridium difficile infection is expanding worldwide.
In addition, domestic pharmaceutical companies and bio ventures are conducting
research to develop new drugs such as immunotherapy using the microbiome. As
such, the current domestic microbiome market mainly consists of functional
products related to probiotics. It is expected to expand to personalized food
and treatment using the microbiome.
◆ What kind of
patents are the recently acquired ‘new patents related to cancer prevention
vaccines and pharmaceutical compositions for treatment’?
As
of April 29, 2022, NKCL Bio Group Inc. has acquired three new patents: a
polymer nanoparticle-based cancer vaccine composition, a dendritic cell cancer
treatment, and a cancer prevention and treatment composition. These patents are
related to 'composition for cancer vaccine manufacturing' and 'cell therapy
composition for cancer treatment', including cell cancer. It is characterized
in that it was promoted in the form of ‘inventor as a University, proprietary rights
belong to a company’. This patent relates to a 'polymer nanoparticle-based
cancer vaccine composition' with excellent anticancer immunotherapeutic effects
that can maximize various anti-cancer effects without externally providing
information about the patient's cancer (cancer antigen information). It has the
effect of increasing the cancer treatment effect more than 8 times compared to
the existing anti-cancer immunotherapy and can be used in the treatment of
various cancers and diseases.
Recently, by acquiring a patent for a
dendritic cell cancer treatment using a 'heparin compound', which is known to
inhibit the occurrence of blood clots from a COVID-19 vaccine or therapeutic
agent, a new way to develop not only immune cell therapy but also therapeutic
agents that can cope with new pandemics is expected to open.
◆Please explain
about ‘NK immune cell automated culture system’
Previous
cell culture can culture cells of 3 patients per researcher and requires highly
educated, high-cost researchers for culturing, so the cost of cell therapy is
very high due to low efficiency and high cost. NKCL Bio Group Inc. has
developed a GMP automation system of cell culture through research and
development based on numerous experiences and data. This is the realization of
a personalized immune care platform by researching and developing
patient-centered NK immune cell therapy. The artificial intelligence automation
system that finds the culture environment optimized for each cell by itself realizes
the mass production and popularization of cell culture, NKCL has the technology
to prevent price increases caused by previous high-cost researchers and to
prevent leakage of original technology.
◆ What
are the characteristics of ‘NKCL Bio Blockchain’?
Blockchain
technology is a technology that can be very useful to efficiently manage and
store human DNA or personal medical data. Beyond this, for the practical use of
the bio blockchain, NKCL's bio blockchain has been upgraded with the technology
of double block chain, and developed a technology that completely separates the
private chain (personal information) and stores it separately. In the provision
of personal health information, it will be possible to pass data while
maintaining the protection of sensitive personal information. By combining
medical data with blockchain, credible clinical big data can be built, and this
can contribute to medical development, paving the way for future generations to
cure cancer.
◆ Please tell
me about the ‘NKCL Classic Project’?
NKCL
Bio Group Inc. runs a personalized immune care platform that is being applied
to various business fields such as anti-cancer, anti-aging, beauty, and
products. The NKCL Classic project was developed to solve the inconvenience
caused by the differences in these business areas. Brand tokens are used for a
limited purpose and can be used as a means of compensation to suit the purpose
of the business.
It
is a project that converges medical big data with practical big data in various
business fields by protecting personal information and preventing data forgery,
through NKCL's unique double block chain technology and existing blockchain
technology.
◆ Please tell us
about the DApp, mainnet, and additional listings of the ‘NKCL Classic’ token.
Currently,
NKCL C token is being used in the real economy through a dedicated wallet
application called Purple Wallet. It has already been commercialized on all
platforms of NKCL. As for the mainnet, we are also developing our own mainnet
by customizing the Linux Foundation's Hyperledger open source, and we aim to
complete the development within two years. Although we have already achieved a
process rate of over 80% this year, the development time was inevitably delayed
due to the need for continuous updates in line with the rapidly changing coin
market. In other words, we have already been able to get it on track to some
extent, but we can say that it is constantly being updated due to the flow of
the coin market. Next, additional listings are being pursued to be added to
about 2-3 domestic and foreign platforms within this year.
◆The bio-health
care industry is growing rapidly after Covid-19. How is the blockchain
technology applied to the bio industry and what is the future prospect?
The
core of the bio-healthcare industry, which is rapidly growing after COVID-19,
is the platform.
NKCL
is researching and developing to add dual blockchain technology to existing
blockchain technology and to converge medical data on platforms such as
Metaverse. In addition, for this purpose, we are working on customizing the
Linux Foundation's open source (hyperledger) to form NKCL's own platform.
◆How will
the ‘NK Immunotherapy Center’ be operated?
The
core of the NK Immunotherapy Center is checkup, diagnosis, and immune care. In
the Immunotherapy center, NKCL's own NK immune checkup program was developed
through NKCL's medical big data, and run through specialized immune cell
activity and homeostasis testing. The checkup program is an impossible area
without various clinical and medical data related to NK cells. When the checkup
is completed with NKCL's unique technology, diagnostic data is released, and
specialists in each field provide sufficient explanations to customers about
immune care plans based on the data. Since then, a program called ‘Personal
Immune Doctor’ is conducted through various NKCL’s unique immune care products
and NKCL’s immune activation program.
◆ Finally, to the readers of
Blockchain Today
In the future, only companies with practical technology, platforms, and
accurate data will survive in the blockchain and related markets. To this end,
NKCL is constantly striving to become a leader and moving forward. Thank you
for your love and encouragement. It was a valuable time to gain a lot from the
long interview with the Blockchain Today officials. I would like to express my
sincere gratitude to the CEO and related parties of Blockchain Today for making
this precious time, and to the readers who made today's Blockchain Today.
Starting with this interview, we dream of a day when we can meet our readers
with Blockchain Today with better news as soon as possible. Thank you. Go for it,
Blockchain Today!
http://www.blockchaintoday.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=23894