The Hub of World Medicine

Professor Song Ji Hwan presents the world’s first possibility of treating ‘Huntington’s disease’ using stem cells, published in Stem Cells, the world’s most prestigious stem cell journal

Professor Song’s team at the Stem Cell Research Center of CHA Medical Center, CHA University of Medical Science, announced that they had confirmed a significant therapeutic effect in transplantation research on Huntington’s disease animal models using ‘patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).’ This study was published on the 24th in the online edition of Stem Cell, a world-renowned stem cell journal.
In the case of Huntington’s disease, there is currently no treatment available worldwide, so if it is commercialized based on this research, it is expected to become the world’s first treatment for Huntington’s disease.

Seongnam Chaum International Stem Cell Clinical Trial Center opens, the world’s only center that provides one-stop service from stem cell production to treatment

The Chaum International Stem Cell Clinical Trial Center, which opened on December 7, is the world’s first stem cell clinical trial that provides one-stop treatment from stem cell production and clinical research, surgery, and hospitalization in a dedicated space. Chaum International Stem Cell Clinical Trial Center is equipped with GMP facilities and a dedicated stem cell operating room in one space, allowing for more efficient stem cell treatment.
After about a year of construction, Cha Bundang Medical Center completed the expansion of a ward dedicated to stem cells with 100 beds, making it a hospital with 1,000 beds.

Success in establishing the world’s first clinically applicable ‘pipotentiated stem cell’

Kim Gwang Soo, director of CHA Hospital’s Integrated Stem Cell Therapy Research Institute, and ‘Stem International’, a subsidiary of CHA Bio&Diostech, a bio company of CHA Hospital Group.
The research team succeeded in jointly developing the world’s first technology to establish pluripotent stem cells using only pluripotency regulatory proteins.

Professor Kim’s team’s groundbreaking research results were published on May 28 in ‘Cell Stem Cell’, a global stem cell magazine, and received a lot of attention from around the world.

CHA University Integrated Stem Cell Therapy Research Center succeeds in developing the world’s first vascular cell treatment technology

CHA University’s Integrated Stem Cell Therapy Research Center (Jeong Hyeong Min Jeong, Kim Kwang Soo) developed the world’s first vascular cell treatment technology using human embryonic stem cells and published it in ‘Circulation’, a professional academic journal ranked within the top 1% in the world, garnering great attention from the media proving once again the superiority of Korea’s stem cell technology.

This research result is the first case of developing cell therapy technology using domestically developed human embryonic stem cells, and the first research result to prove safety and effectiveness through induction of differentiation into specific cells and in vivo experiments.

Developed the world’s first slush nitrogen egg freezing technology

This is a method that has further improved the efficiency of egg freezing by supplementing the existing egg freezing method by Director Cha Gwang Ryeol and Professor Yoon Tae Gi, who is world-renowned in reproductive medicine and leading the world’s stem cell research achievements. This method can lower the damage rate to eggs and increase the pregnancy rate in the future. A new concept of egg freezing and preservation using slush nitrogen was developed.

Oocyte freezing disease offers greater hope in the pregnancy of patients who require chemotherapy or radiation treatment due to cancer, or who require ovaries removed, and in the pregnancy of patients who cannot use embryo freezing due to ethical or religious reasons and wish to freeze their eggs.

Nationally designated ‘DNA Chip Development Cooperation Center’ Reproductive Medicine Genome Research Center

Once the preeclampsia prediction DNA chip and prenatal diagnosis DNA chip, which are currently being researched for the first time in the world at Cha Hospital as part of a national project, are developed, all legally possible genetic disease diagnoses will be made within just 2 days, resulting in global prenatal diagnosis worth over 300 billion won per year. and can dominate the genetic disease diagnosis market.

World’s first cancer cell suppressor gene discovered

Professor Baek Gwang Hyun’s research team at CHA University of Medical Science and CHA Hospital’s Cell Gene Therapy Research Institute discovered for the first time in the world an enzyme gene that plays a critical role in cancer treatment. The ‘mHOUSP’ enzyme gene discovered by Professor Baek functions to regulate the cancer suppressor protein p53.

Successful production of sperm cells from reproductive stem cells in the testicles

The research team of CHA University of Medical Science and CHA Hospital Women’s Medicine Research Institute (Director Cha Kwang Ryeol, Director Yoon Tae Gi, Director Lee Dong Ryul, Professor Kim Gye Seong, Kim Soo Kyung, and Yang Yun Hee) presented the report titled “Inside the Mouse Testes” at the 59th American Fertility Society held in San Antonio, Texas, in October 2003 and won the Best Paper Award (Society for Male Reproduction and Urology, Prize Paper Award) for the research paper titled “Isolation and proliferation of reproductive stem cells and induction of sperm cell differentiation through in vitro culture,” and presented a new treatment method for male infertility due to azoospermia.

Developed the world’s first cervical cancer diagnosis kit, enabling testing for all genes that cause cervical cancer during prenatal testing

The team of Dr. Kim Seung Jo and Dr. Lee Sang Hwa from CHA Bundang Medical Center, CHA University of Medical Science, developed and commercialized the world’s first cervical cancer diagnostic kit (Albioamp-p I), which can test all 30 types of human papilloma virus found to cause cervical cancer.

World’s first discovery of gene causing habitual miscarriage

The team of Dr. Lee Sook Hwan and Baek Gwang Hyeon from the Women’s Medical Research Institute of CHA University of Medical Science succeeded in identifying the habitual miscarriage gene discovered for the first time in the world, opening the way for its treatment. It was an opportunity to recognize the excellence of Korea’s infertility genome research results by being published in the journals of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, the European Society of Reproduction and Development, and the Journal of Reproduction, Fertility and Development.

For the first time in Korea, stem cells were differentiated into brain nerve cells and two embryonic stem cell lines were registered at the National Institutes of Health.

CHA University, CHA Hospital’s Cell and Gene Therapy Research Institute (Director Jeong Hyeong Min) succeeded in creating brain nerve cells that can restore the function of damaged cranial nerves by transplanting rat embryonic stem cells into the brain of a living rat for the first time in Korea. CHA Hospital’s Cell and Gene Therapy Research Institute is also conducting research on creating dopaminergic neurons using human embryonic stem cells, and the results of this research will be applied to patients with degenerative brain diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease, which are known to be incurable, within a few years.

Developed the world’s first vitrified egg cryopreservation method and acquired a domestic patent in 2004

The ‘glass aerator automatic freezing method’, which received the best paper award from the World Society of Infertility and the American Society of Infertility in 1998, is a method that dramatically complements the cryopreservation method of fertilized eggs used in existing in vitro fertilization procedures and is an instantaneous method that does not use expensive cryopreservation devices. Freezing is a technology that ultra-rapidly freeze-preserves eggs in a gel state without forming ice crystals within the cells.

World’s first in vitro culture pregnancy of immature eggs

This treatment was first successfully developed in the world in 1998 at the Cha Hospital Women’s Medical Research Institute and is currently used as an infertility treatment in infertility centers around the world.
This means that only immature eggs are collected during the in vitro fertilization process, or when egg production is impossible due to early menopause, immature eggs are donated from another person, or immature eggs are collected and frozen for preservation before cancer treatment with radiotherapy or chemotherapy due to cancer. It can be used after maturing, or it can be frozen and preserved after inducing fertilization and used after cancer treatment.