Publications by authors named "Byung Gee Kim"

S100A8 serves as a biomarker for periodontitis and is involved in inflammatory processes, making its detection highly important. In this study, we produced recombinant 5A11 (r5A11) through mammalian cell culture. By employing a three-step process of transfection, suspension cell culture, and purification, we conveniently produced r5A11 with high yield and purity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Developing countries struggle with water quality management owing to poor infrastructure, limited expertise, and financial constraints. Traditional water testing, relying on periodic site visits and manual sampling, is impractical for continuous wide-area monitoring and fails to detect sudden heavy metal contamination. To address this, plant-inspired robots capable of fully autonomous water quality monitoring are proposed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Metabolically engineered microbial consortia can contribute as a promising production platform for the supply of polyamide monomers. To date, the biosynthesis of long-chain α,ω-diamines from -alkanes is challenging because of the inert nature of -alkanes and the complexity of the overall synthesis pathway. We combined an engineered module with modules to obtain a mixed strain microbial consortium that could catalyze an efficient biotransformation of -alkanes into corresponding α,ω-diamines.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

2'-Fucosyllactose (2'-FL), one of the major human milk oligosaccharides, was produced in several engineered microorganisms. However, the low solubility of α-1,2-fucosyltransferase (α1,2-FucT) often becomes a bottleneck to produce maximum amount of 2'-FL in the microorganisms. To overcome this solubility issue, the following studies were conducted to improve the soluble expression of α1,2-FucT.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The tissue-specific heart decellularized extracellular matrix (hdECM) demonstrates a variety of therapeutic advantages, including fibrosis reduction and angiogenesis. Consequently, recent research for myocardial infarction (MI) therapy has utilized hdECM with various delivery techniques, such as injection or patch implantation. In this study, a novel approach for hdECM delivery using a wet adhesive paintable hydrogel is proposed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Staphylococcus aureus is a major pathogen that causes infections and life-threatening diseases. Although antibiotics, such as methicillin, have been used, methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) causes high morbidity and mortality rates, and conventional detection methods are difficult to be used because of time-consuming process.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Tyrosinase-mediated protein conjugation is gaining interest for specific protein modifications, but existing enzymes only work on highly exposed tyrosine residues, limiting their effectiveness.
  • The newly discovered tyrosinase from Streptomyces avermitilis (SaTYR) shows significantly higher activity against surface tyrosine residues, with a flat substrate-binding pocket that accommodates protein substrates more effectively.
  • SaTYR enables successful tagging and modification of less accessible tyrosine residues with high efficiency (95.2% conjugation yield in 1 hour), suggesting it could broaden the range of applications in protein bioconjugation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Exposure to UV radiation causes skin damage by degrading the extracellular matrix and triggering inflammation, leading to melanin production for skin protection.
  • The study introduces a method to enhance skin protection using a combination of tyrosinase and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT), capable of penetrating deep into the skin (about 300 μm).
  • Results show that SaTy-SWNT significantly increases melanin synthesis and UV absorption, effectively reducing inflammation and wrinkles by over 66%, showcasing its potential in tissue engineering.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Although recent advances in deep learning approaches for protein engineering have enabled quick prediction of hot spot residues improving protein solubility, the predictions do not always correspond to an actual increase in solubility under experimental conditions. Therefore, developing methods that rapidly confirm the linkage between computational predictions and empirical results is essential to the success of improving protein solubility of target proteins. Here, we present a simple hybrid approach to computationally predict hot spots possibly improving protein solubility by sequence-based analysis and empirically explore valuable mutants using split GFP as a reporter system.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Researchers aimed to create a reliable detection method for S100A8, a protein linked to inflammation and cancer, by developing a high-affinity monoclonal antibody.
  • They produced a soluble and pure recombinant S100A8 protein using E. coli and then immunized mice to generate antibodies through hybridoma technology.
  • The successful identification of the antibody's sequence will facilitate the creation of hybridoma cell lines and recombinant antibodies for research and clinical uses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A genetic approach targeted toward improving athletic performance is called gene doping and is prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Currently, the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-associated protein (Cas)-related assays have been utilized to detect genetic deficiencies or mutations. Among the Cas proteins, deadCas9 (dCas9), a nuclease-deficient mutant of Cas9, acts as a DNA binding protein with a target-specific single guide RNA.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Polyphenols are bioactive compounds with therapeutic uses, and their effectiveness can be enhanced through hydroxylation and glycosylation, improving their bioavailability and stability.
  • The process of ortho-hydroxylation can be efficiently performed using the enzyme tyrosinase, while less common meta- and para-hydroxylation involves specific enzymes like cytochrome P450s.
  • O-glycosylation, which follows hydroxylation, typically needs NDP-sugar, but amylosucrase has shown promise for large-scale glycosylation of polyphenols without this requirement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The α,ω-diamines (NH-(CH)-NH) and ω -amino fatty acids (NH-(CH)-COOH) have been widely used as building blocks in polymerindustries. Medium- to long-chain (C to C) fatty acid monomers with amino residues are almost exclusively produced chemical processes that generate hazardous waste and induce severe environmental problems, such as global warming and pollution. Here, we present the construction platformstrains of a cheese-ripening yeast, for direct biotransformation of hydrocarbons into medium- to long-chain α,ω-diamines and ωamino fatty acids using metabolic engineering of endogenous fatty acid ω- and β-oxidation pathways and introducing heterologous ω-transaminase in .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Chronic solar ultraviolet exposure is a major risk factor for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC), which is the second most common type of skin cancer. Our previous data showed that total protein and phosphorylation levels of T-LAK cell-originated protein kinase (TOPK) were enhanced in solar-simulated light (SSL)-induced skin carcinogenesis and overexpressed in actinic keratosis (AK) and cSCC human skin tissues compared to those in matched normal skin. Thus, targeting TOPK activity could be a helpful approach for treating cSCC.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

One of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in human erythropoietin (hEPO), the c.577del variant, can produces 26 amino acids longer than the wild-type hEPO, posing a risk of misinterpretation in routine doping analysis. To prevent this, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) included a procedure for reporting the sequencing results regarding the presence or absence of SNPs for suspected cases in the new version of the technical document for recombinant EPO in 2022.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

() and () are major pathogens frequently detected in food and beverage poisoning, and persistent infections. Therefore, the development of a rapid method that can detect these pathogens before serious multiplication is required. In this study, we established a flow cytometry (FCM)-based detection method that allows rapid acquisition of cell populations in fluid samples by using a fluorescent antibody against or .

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Bridging biological tissues for immediate adhesion and long-term sustainability was accomplished using a combination of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) and tyrosinase. Tyrosinase-loaded MSNs provided rapid physical adsorption, while tyrosinase within MSNs induced enzymatic chemical bond gluing of tissues. This synergistic strategy has robust potential in tissue adhesives for clinical settings.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) contributes to several aspects of inflammation and cancer pathology, including invasion, metastasis, and angiogenesis. In this study, we expressed a recombinant fragment antigen-binding (Fab)-type anti-MMP9 antibody in Escherichia coli with high purity within five days and confirmed the nanomolar order of antigen-binding efficiency of the recombinant Fab. Moreover, we optimized the experimental time for performing enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and decreased the reaction time from the conventional 20.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) is a major pathogen that causes nosocomial infections and often exhibits antibiotic resistance. Therefore, the development of an accurate method for detecting P.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

6-Bromoindirubin (6BrIR), found in Murex sea snails, is a precursor of indirubin-derivatives anticancer drugs. However, its synthesis remains limited due to uncharacterized biosynthetic pathways and difficulties in site-specific bromination and oxidation at the indole ring. Here, we present an efficient 6BrIR production strategy in Escherichia coli by using four enzymes, that is, tryptophan 6-halogenase fused with flavin reductase Fre (Fre-L3-SttH), tryptophanase (TnaA), toluene 4-monooxygenase (PmT4MO), and flavin-containing monooxygenase (MaFMO).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The thermostability of enzymes is an essential factor that performs a vital role during practical applications. Inulin fructotransferases can efficiently convert inulin into bio-functional difructose anhydrides (DFAs). The present study aimed to improve the thermostability of a previously reported inulin fructotransferase, SpIFTase, and apply it to the biosynthesis of DFA I.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Melanin nanoparticles (MNPs) used for biomedical applications are often synthesized the chemical auto-oxidation of catecholic monomers such as dopamine and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) under alkaline conditions. However, the synthetic method for the chemical synthesis of MNP (cMNP) is relatively straightforward and more robust to control their homogenous particle size and morphology than the corresponding enzymatic synthetic methods. In this study, we demonstrated that the simple enzymatic synthesis of MNPs (eMNPs) with homogenous and soluble (<20 nm diameter) properties is possible using dopamine and tyrosinase (Ty) under acidic conditions (, pH 3.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The determination of the molecular weight (MW) of a protein using high-resolution mass spectrometry (MS) is a crucial tool used to confirm whether the protein was correctly expressed and adequately purified. However, a non-volatile buffer is normally used for protein purification and storage. Therefore, a pre-treatment step using ultrafiltration (UF) is required to exchange the buffer with a volatile buffer prior to the introduction of the protein sample into the MS equipment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF