Introduction

Functional Organoid-based Biometabolism Laboratory (FOBL) is the organoid-based molecular biology lab located at Sungkyunkwan University in Suwon, South Korea. Our lab was established in 2023 by Assistant Professor Jong-Chan Park, who is an expert on the induced-pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-based molecular cell biology and the generation of brain organoids. Using iPS cell-based high-end techniques, our lab is trying to shed light on the development of organoid-based precision medicine, visualizing quantum biophysical bioenergetic and metabolic mechanisms, and constructing biological and mathematical disease models. Moreover, our lab is currently developing novel stem cell and functional organ-on-a-chip-based technologies for the ultimate goal to materialize human-on-a-chip platforms which can be applied to diverse refractory diseases. 


What is "Organoid"? 


An organoid is a miniaturized and simplified version of an organ that can be produced in vitro in 3D that shows realistic micro-anatomy. It is derived from specific stem-cell types such as embryonic stem cells or iPS cells which can self-organize in three-dimensional culture owing to their self-renewal and differentiation capacities.  A multitude of organ structures have been recapitulated using organoids; cerebral organoids including forebrain or midbrain organoids, gut organoids including intestinal or gastric organoids, lung organoids, blood-brain-barrier organoids, and so on. Since current organoid systems hold several limitations such as off-target differentiation issues or safety issues, our lab will strive to iron out such difficulties with our full efforts using diverse high-end techniques and quantum biophysical approaches. 

Research Topics 

For Our Better Life, our FOBL focuses on materializing organoid-based precision medicine therapy with the following techniques & research topics.
iPS cell-based 2D/3D cellular manipulations and high-end imaging techniques

Our lab has special techniques relevant to iPS cells; i) we can generate iPS cells from human blood samples, ii) we can perform diverse cellular manipulations to generate 2D or 3D organs in vitro, iii) we also have unique tools for visualizing 2D or 3D organoids with high-end imaging techniques and 3D/4D rendering software (Park et al., Adv. Sci. 2022 & Cell Rep. 2022). 

Organoid-based real-time tracking for quantum bioenergetics and biometabolism

Mitochondrial bioenergetics and metabolic functions are major biological processes for individual cells and human bodies. However, current technologies have limitations to visualize or quantify mitochondrial actions. With our quantum biophysical perspective, our goal is to understand organogenesis or pathogenesis via quantum biosensors.

Biological and mathematical disease modeling for precision medicine

Given the complexity arising from multi-step pathogenic processes of refractory diseases, it is difficult to identify a disease-modifying target for each patient by conventional single pathway analysis. Hence, our goal is to develop an integrated system to determine an optimal drug target with the consideration of the complex molecular landscape (Park et al., Nat. Commun. 2021).

 


News (more)





- Dr. Seongmin Kim has joined our group as research fellow! he is a lead researcher and in collaboration with Harvard University, Prof. Luke P. Lee, Welcome! ( 2024.04 )






- Jiyu Na has joined our group! Welcome! ( 2024.01 )






 - SeaWoon Shin has joined our group! Welcome! ( 2023.12 )






 - Prof. Jong-Chan Park has awarded 'Sigma-Aldrich Scientist Award' at the Organoid Society conference!! Congratulation! :)






 - Min Jin Lee has joined our group! Welcome! ( 2023.07 )







Recent Publication (more)

-A new paper has been published!
"Microglia gravitate toward the amyloid plaques surrounded by externalized phosphatidylserine via TREM2"
Park et al., Advanced Science. 2024, 07. (IF = 17.521)
-A new paper has been published!
"Sex differences in the progression of glucose metabolism dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease"
Park et al., Experimental & Molecular Medicine 2023, 05. (IF = 12.178)

-A new paper has been published!
"Association of B cell profile and receptor repertoire with the progression of Alzheimer’s disease"
 Park et al., Cell Reports 2022.09 (IF = 9.9)


-A new paper has been published!
"Multi‐Omics‐Based Autophagy‐Related Untypical Subtypes in Patients with Cerebral Amyloid Pathology"
 Park et al., Advanced Science 2022. (IF = 17.521)


-A new paper has been published!
"A logical network-based drug-screening platform for Alzheimer’s disease representing pathological features of human brain organoids"
 Park et al., Nature communications 2021. (IF = 17.694)