Marine BioBank to Provide Therapeutic Materials for Metabolic Diseases

As Marine BioBank's 7th resource bank, Metabolic Disease Material Bank to provide efficacy information and physical resources for suppressing hypertension, obesity, and diabetes

 The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF; Minister Kang Do-hyung) announced that it has established a new marine biobank for metabolic diseases (hypertension, diabetes, and obesity) whose operation will begin on Tuesday, March 4.

 MOF has operated the Marine BioBank—which centered on resources with useful efficacy that can be applied to the industry to foster new marine industries—since 2018. It began with a bank of resource materials, basic efficacy information, and extracts; a bank of purpose-based material targeting specific areas started to be established in 2022.

 When the metabolic process is abnormal, metabolic diseases occur including high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity. They are the main cause of various complications such as cardiovascular disease and stroke, accounting for a large portion of modern people's health problems.

 Last year, MOF decided to identify marine and fishery bioresources for use in metabolic diseases and establish a material bank based on industry, academe, and research needs. As a result, 1,350 materials were extracted from marine organisms such as sea snails, clams, spiny shrimps, and aster, and the efficacy of these materials on metabolic diseases (hypertension, diabetes, and obesity) was analyzed and graded according to efficacy activity (153 materials for grade A, 273 materials for grade B, and 924 materials for grade C) in November of last year.

 Information on the grade of metabolic disease materials and distribution services for actual resources will be available at the National Marine Biodiversity Institute of Korea (MABIK)’s Marine BioBank website (www.mbris.kr/biobank). The actual resources and information on metabolic disease materials are expected to be utilized in research in industries, academe, and research institutes, as well as in developing healthy functional foods, etc.

 "A marine biobank for metabolic disease materials will increase the utilization of biomaterials that are effective in suppressing metabolic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and obesity and contribute to the revitalization of the marine bioindustry. We plan to expand industrial-purpose marine biobanks for anticancer and antiviral materials continuously," Minister Kang Do-hyung said.