PROMEDIGEN is a first-in-class biotechnology company focusing on the treatment of cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.

Proteins control the metabolism, growth, and cell division through various types of post-translational modifications (PTMs). Abnormal PTMs may ruin many cellular processes including signal transduction, leading to serious diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. While significant advances have been made to understand PTMs and their effect on protein-protein interactions (PPIs) and cellular signaling pathways, this area remains technically challenging. This, in turn, makes it difficult to elucidate the causes of various diseases and to find effective treatments.

PROMEDIGEN has developed a unique, proprietary technology platform for site-specific introduction of PTMs. This technology enables production of abnormally modified proteins that are associated with a variety of serious diseases including cancer and dementia. Using this novel protein engineering platform, PROMEDIGEN is making breakthroughs toward the development of innovative, first-in-class drugs. Specifically, one of the key goals is to address drug resistance in cancer.

PROMEDIGEN is advancing a pipeline containing multiple cancer-specific targets that have previously been considered intractable. Utilizing its groundbreaking modified protein-based PPI drug discovery platform, PROMEDIGEN is growing into a first-in-class biotech company leading the development of new, innovative treatments for cancer and neurodegenerative disorders.

Team

Hee-Sung Park, Ph.D., Founder & CEO

Hee-Sung is a professor of chemistry at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). As a leading scholar in the field, Hee-Sung has published numerous critical research articles and inspiring breakthroughs in scientific journals including four papers in SCIENCE. In particular, Hee-Sung has invented innovative protein engineering technologies including site-specific incorporation of phosphoserine (published in SCIENCE in 2011) and chemical biology routes to site-specific authentic protein modifications (published in SCIENCE in 2016). He founded a the biotech company Promedigen in 2019 based on such state-of-the-art scientific advances. Hee-Sung believes that these pioneering technologies will revolutionize drug discovery and lead to the development of new drugs for cancer and neurogenerative diseases.

Martin Pettersson, Ph.D., Vice President, Drug Discovery

Martin is a medicinal chemistry and drug discovery leader with nearly two decades of experience from Pfizer and GRT Therapeutics/Grünenthal. During his time at Pfizer, Martin delivered multiple compounds into clinical development. Most notably, Martin is a co-inventor of Paxlovid – Pfizer’s oral protease inhibitor for COVID-19. He co-led the program from project inception until mid-August, 2020 during which time the clinical candidate was designed and synthesized. Martin also led Pfizer’s gamma-secretase modulator program chemistry team (Alzheimer’s disease) from early lead generation through nomination of three clinical candidates. The lead compound PF-06648671 achieved positive proof of mechanism in the clinic. Martin has a strong interest in the development and evaluation of new drug discovery platforms and technologies, and he has worked in diverse areas such as phenotypic drug discovery, chemical biology, and small molecules targeting RNA. Additionally, he has co-authored nearly 30 publications and is a co-inventor on 17 patents or published patent applications

Seung-chul LeeStrategic Director & a Board Member

Seung-chul is a Strategic Director and a board member of Promedigen. Prior to Promedigen, He worked as a Chief Investment Officer at BE investment and has worked as a venture capitalist at APL Partners. His career is specialized in biopharmaceutical investment and IPO strategies. He earned his B.S. & M.S. in Food Molecular Microbiology from Seoul National University.

Jae-Myung KimAuditing Director & a Board Member

Jae-Myung is an Auditing Director and a board member of Promedigen. Jae Myung has more than 20 years of investment, venture incubating, fund raising, and M&A transactions. He received his B.S. in Physics from University of Iowa.

Kyu-Kwang Cho, Ph.D.,R&D General Manager

Kyu-Kwang is R&D General Manager of Promedigen. He is interested in development of drug screening platform for targeting protein-protein interaction and hit validation. He earned his Ph.D. degree in Department of Chemistry from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(KAIST).

Su-Jung Bae, Ph.D.,Efficacy Team Leader

Su-Jung is a Efficacy team leader of promedigen. Dr. Bae was a researcher in the Drug Development Research Department at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, KRICT. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Pharmacy from Ewha Womans University

Hye-Yeoung Yun, Ph.D.,New-Target Team Leader

Hye-Yeoung is a New Target Team leader of Promedigen. Her research interests include protein crystallography and protein-protein interaction. She received her Ph.D. in the Department of Proteome Structural biology from the University of Science and Technology, Korea.

Ji-Ryang HeoGeneral Manager

Ji-Ryang is currently a General Manager in Management Department. He is in charge of finance, accounting and general affairs as well. Before joining Promedigen, he has worked in the field of accounting for 15 years. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from Pusan National University.

Hiroaki Suga, Ph.D.,Scientific Advisory Board

• Professor, The University of Tokyo
• Founder of PeptiDream (market cap of $2 bn)
• Advising on protein engineering, chemical biology and venture creation

Byung-Ha Oh, Ph.D.,Scientific Advisory Board

• Professor of Biological Sciences, KAIST
• Previously at GSK
• Advising on structural biology

Technology

Site-specific Incorporation of Phosphoserine

PPI Platform

Ability to target any disease-associated PPI

Achievement

Modulating oncogenic transcription factors by targeting PTM PTM1-driven PPIs PPIs2: Addressing drug resistance in cancer

News & Events

Contact us

PROMEDIGEN
272-16, Munji-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
Daejeon AI Center, suite # 113-115, 606
대전광역시 유성구 문지로 272-16, 113-115호, 606호
TEL+82-42-867-9113
E-MAILcontact@promedigen.com