Home > R&D > Clinical & Basic Reaearch
Over 250 papers have been published in local and international journals. The center
has not only been awarded for the Best Paper in the American society for reproductive
medicine (ASRM) and Korean society for reproductive medicine (KSRM) but was also
nominated for the Best Paper for several times in ASRM and European society for
reproductive medicine (ESHRE). Furthermore, CHA fertility center was introduced
for three times in America’s leading news magazine, Times.
Basic research center of CHA medical center carries out genetic, infertility and
other reproductive medicine researches. These researches are systematic and the
center has been internationally recognized as a specialized reproductive research
institute through all the research activities. The center is committed to represent
as a specialized reproductive research institute in Korea for the 21st century by
combining clinical and basic research in order to have more effective outcomes for
infertility and genetic diseases.
This laboratory is associated with Fertility Research Laboratory which takes responsibilities
in the basic research related to infertility. Research on generation, differentiation
and cryopreservation of oocytes and sperm are actively in progress related to stem
cell research to overcome infertility. In addition, studies on fertilization of
oocyte and sperm and subsequent early embryo development, and the establishment
and differentiation of embryonic stem cell are under investigation.
- Discovery of spermatogenesis regulatory genes
- Development of technology for in vitro sperm production from the stem cells
- In vitro maturation and fertilization of oocytes
- Cryopreservation of oocytes and sperm
- Development of embryo culture condition
- Establishment of embryonic stem cell and germ cell production, such as sperms and
oocytes
With the development of science and medicine, people’s life span lately became longer
compare to that of the past decades. Despite of this change, the menopause comes
in women (47~55 years old) at almost the same age. Thus, women undergo menopause
longer during their life period. So far, the most accepted theory for the cause
of menopause was that women uses limited number of ovarian primordial follicles
during the reproductive period which consequently results in no ovulation due to
depletion of primordial follicles.
We carried out researches regarding how the rest of primordial follicles remain
arrested through the reproductive life while cohorts of primordial follicles were
selected for growth.
Also we carried out studies on the follicle growth including growth of oocytes.
Oocytes fertilize and equipped to have an ability to form embryos through the normal
follicular development. Research on the mechanism oocyte maturation is still limited
hence in our laboratory, we conducted research on this area in molecular biological
aspects by using Genomics, Transcriptomics, Proteomics, and Bioinformatics.
- Research on genes and proteins related to regulation of follicular arrest and selection
- Research on genes and proteins related to maturation process of immature oocytes
- Research on the discovery of gene function by usihg RNA interference method
Stem cell laboratory conducts research on human embryo stem (ES) cells, cell therapy
development using human ES cells, establishment of new human ES cell lines and development
of effective cryopreservation methods for ES cell preservation.
This laboratory also carries out research on the differentiation of ES cells to
a specific germ layer using virus induced gene delivery system in order to apply
it as a cell replacement therapy.
- Maintenance of human ES cells
- Differentiation of mesodermal lineages from hESC
- Differentiation of Osteoblastic Cells from HESC
- Differentiation of Endothelial Cells from HESC
- Differentiation of Genetic modification of human ES cells
- Stable transgene expression in HESC using lentiviral gene delivery system