<From left, Master Yoo Do-heon, Master Jeong Se-hwan, Professor Kim Gyo-beom, and Professor Choi Min-jae>

Dongguk University (President Yun Jae-woong) announced on January 22 that the research team of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, comprising Master Yoo Do-heon (First Co-author), Master Jeong Se-hwan (First Co-author), Professor Kim Gyo-beom (Co-corresponding Author), and Professor Choi Min-jae (Co-corresponding Author), succeeded in near-infrared photothermal anticancer therapy.

Photothermal anticancer therapy is a noninvasive therapy that applies light to a local area to induce heat generation to eradicate cancer cells selectively. The research team developed eco-friendly quantum dots without in vivo toxicity, used them in their research, and confirmed that they generate heat when irradiated with infrared rays and eradicate cancer cells. While most existing photothermal anticancer therapy uses gold nanoparticles, this research is characterized by using quantum dots.

Professor Choi Min-jae’s team said, “Quantum dots are easy to control in the infrared area and have strong potential as the material for infrared photothermal therapy in the future, and we plan to develop photothermal therapies targeting various tumors through follow-up studies.”

The research was funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea through the Basic Research Lab Support Project and Excellent New Research Project, and was published in the January 2024 edition of the renowned international academic journal ACS Materials Letters (IF=11.4) under the title “Dual-Ligand Surface Passivation Enables Monodisperse Ag2S Colloidal Quantum Dots for Efficient Near-Infrared Photothermal Therapy.”