Radiation-Mutation Enhancement Technology (R-MET) for Vaccine Development” Transferred

- KAERI transfers R-MET for Salmonella vaccine (ATOMSal-L6) to CTCVAC Inc.-

□ In August 2021, hundreds of individuals had food poisoning from a famous restaurant in the Greater Seoul Area, and the outbreak drew people’s attention to the Salmonella infection through meat and eggs. Meanwhile, a Korean research team successfully developed a novel Salmonella vaccine that can vaccinate animals to preemptively prevent food poisoning, and transferred the technology to the industry.

□ The Advanced Radiation Technology Institute under the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute said that it successfully developed an Salmonella vaccine (ATOMSal-L6) through its own ‘Radiation Mutation Enhancement Technology (R-MET) for vaccine development’ and concluded a technology   contract to transfer both the developed technology and vaccine (ATOMSal-L6) to CTCVAC Inc. with condition of receiving its royalty in a fixed amount of 200 million KRW.

 ㅇ CTCVAC Inc., a company specialized in animal vaccine (A subsidiary of CTCBio inc), has actively developed and commercialized vaccines by expanding the branch office of its affiliated  research institute within the site of ARTI in Jeongeup. Through the contracted CTCVAC will promote the commercialization of the Salmonella vaccine (ATOMSal-L6) with KAERI.

□ The developed Salmonella vaccine (ATOMSal-L6) is an attenuated live vaccine prepared by reducing the toxicity of a living pathogen by using gamma-ray. The new Salmonella vaccine shows a better immune reaction and thus has a stronger infection prevention effect more than double the chemically inactivated Salmonella vaccine currently on the market.

 ㅇ An attenuated live vaccine is developed by using a pathogen mutant having a reduced toxicity. Being based on a spontaneous mutant, the conventional technology for manufacturing an attenuated live vaccine required much labor, time and expense. However, the ‘R-MET’ developed by  ARTI, allows for inducing of many diverse type of mutants, thereby shortening  the period of the vaccine development process, which usually takes several years within two months

 ㅇ The researchers who developed the legendary HemoHIM at Kolma B&H, Korea’s first research institute spin-off enterprise, cooperated in the project to complete the clinical study of the Salmonella vaccine (ATOMSal-L6). Recently, the patent for the ‘R-MET’ was registered in Korea, and the patent applications have been filed to US, EU and China.

□ The R&D project was conducted by the Microbial Research Team of the Radiation Research Division at ARTI, supported by the Radiation Technology Development Program and the Radiation High-Value Added New Materials Program of the Ministry of Science and ICT. This project is considered as a good example where the research began with the development of the basic technology and continued to the clinical studies and commercialization in steps.

□  Dr. Lee, Nam-ho, Head of ARTI commented, “The project is a representative example where  nuclear technology was applied to drug development, which is a non-power generation area.” He added, “We will do our best to promote the research on vaccine technology as one of the future-oriented research projects even to the point of developing a vaccine for humans.”