Abstract
The Korean Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society (K-OTS) was established in June 2009 for the nonprofit purpose of rallying and promoting academic, medical and industrial research and development of oligonucleotide-based therapeutics in Korea. K-OTS consists of experts in various fields of oligonucleotides including basic researchers in universities and government-funded research institutes, medical doctors, industrial researchers, and even specialists in business and the investment area. Moreover, government officials and experts who establish, review, and manage the policies for drug development and approval are included as advisory board members in K-OTS.
Every year, K-OTS holds two workshops, one during the summer and one during the winter. The winter workshop is held as a focused round-table discussion of principal investigators to investigate and explore the unmet needs and integral programs in the medical area to build collaborative research and commercialization strategies. The summer workshop is mainly composed of providing opportunities for young researchers, including students and postdocs to present their recent research activities. Moreover, K-OTS holds an international conference during the late fall. The program is mainly composed of presentations from invited international and domestic experts. Therefore, K-OTS is a well-organized and focused society in the field of oligonucleotides, covering bench to clinic and market.
Since its foundation, K-OTS has kept close relationships with the U.S.-based Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society, Inc. (OTS). As a result, K-OTS is pleased to host the 9th annual meeting of OTS in 2013 in Seoul, Korea. Due to these activities, the number of active members of K-OTS is increasing every year. Beginning in 2011, K-OTS decided to expand the Society's scope to the oligonucleotide-based diagnostics area, including health and environment. This year, the number of active members of K-OTS is over 300, and the number of principal investigators is over 75.
At present, several Korean companies are developing oligonucleotide-based diagnostics and therapeutics. Two well-established companies are involved in oligonucleotide-based business: Samyang Corporation, which focuses on oligonucleotide-delivery systems, recently signed a licensing agreement for joint research with Takeda, Inc. in Japan for siRNA-based therapeutics development and a PBS Aptamer Initiative Program, which is supported by POSCO, Inc., and concentrates on the development of aptamer-based research tools, in vitro diagnostics and molecular imaging systems. Four relatively small-sized venture companies are aggressively pursuing business-oriented oligonucleotide-based therapeutics and diagnostics research and development: Genolution Pharmaceuticals, BMT, Inc., and Bexcore, Inc., which focus on development of therapeutic tools and regimens based on oligonucleotides including siRNA, miRNA, and aptamers, and PCL, Inc., which focuses on the development of diagnostic systems based on oligonucleotides including aptamers. Several manufacturing companies including Bioneer Corporation are also actively involved in the oligonucleotide business field in Korea.
This K-OTS focused special issue of Nucleic Acid Therapeutics describes some of the ongoing progress and accomplishments in Korea covering various disciplines and uses of oligonucleotides as diagnostic tools and their therapeutic potentials. Dong-ki Lee gives a comprehensive review of structural diversity repertoire of gene silencing siRNAs. Won Jong Kim summarizes the recent progress in the use of polymers in siRNA delivery. Yu-Kyung Oh describes enhanced transfection rates of siRNAs using dioleylglutamide-based magnetic lipoplexes. Sunjoo Jeong reports on in vitro selection of RNA aptamer and specific targeting of ErbB2 in cancer cells, and Jaehoon Yu presents an RNA aptamer that selectively recognizes symmetric dimethylation of arginine 8 in the histone H3 N-terminal peptide. Dong-ki Lee introduces long dsRNA-mediated RNA interference and immunostimulation and the use of long interfering dsRNA (liRNA) as a potent anticancer therapeutic. Soyoun Kim presents a Sol-gel integrated protein array system for affinity analysis of aptamer-target protein interactions.
We believe Korea harbors a tremendous amount of growth potential for the development and commercialization of oligonucleotides as therapeutics and diagnostics in diverse areas including biomedicine and the environment, etc. We hope this K-OTS special issue will serve the readers the impetus and enthusiasm to find international collaborations with partners in Korea in oligonucleotide-based applications.