BioOne

Aims to secure national unique resources, enhance research competitiveness, and meet unmet demands for resources and information required in research settings.

The Korea Model Animal Priority Center (KMPC), founded in 2013, focuses on securing unique model animal resources and strengthening domestic and international research networks. Utilizing mice, a core model animal in life sciences research, KMPC elucidates human disease mechanisms, provides fundamental data for developing new therapies, and strengthens the nation’s research infrastructure.

Over the past decade, the institute has established infrastructure for mouse resource management, including banking, purification, quality control, and distribution services, along with basic and secondary phenotyping analysis. It operates the ‘MOP (Mouse One Portal)’ to integrate domestic mouse information and shares over 3,000 mouse resource records.

In 2021, the KMPC was designated as the Model Animal Central Bank (overall/information sector), overseeing the collection, preservation, distribution, and utilization of all model animals, including experimental vertebrates. Based on high-demand mouse resource information, the institute provides one-stop support for resource development, sharing, and distribution. Furthermore, it has established the model animal resource information portal (KAMA, Korea Animal Model Archive) through standardized processes for each resource, providing information and one-stop service capabilities and infrastructure.

As the hub of domestic model animal research, the KMPC establishes a user-centered model animal acquisition process and strives to compete with and lead advanced countries in the life sciences sector through securing international-level model animal resources and facilitating information exchange.

We provide non-human primate research support services that can contribute to resolving national social issues and be utilized across multiple government ministries.

The Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology (KRIBB) established the Primate Resources Center (PRC) in 2018 to secure and cultivate high-quality SPF research primate resources. Since then, the center has introduced and bred two species of macaques, which are the most commonly used monkeys in research.

The PRC contributes to promoting research using monkey resources by performing tasks such as securing monkey resources, developing and preserving monkey-derived research materials, distributing resources/materials, and standardizing monkey resources based on clinical data, serving as a national infrastructure hub for primate resources.

Currently located in Ibam-myeon, Jeongeup-si, Jeollabuk-do, the center occupies a site area of approximately 72,744 m² with a total floor area of 9,904 m². Its facilities include a basic research building (Molecular Reproductive Physiology Lab, Micromanipulation Room, Cell Culture Room, Clinical Pathology Lab, Molecular Genetics Lab, and Shared Equipment Room), a quarantine building (Primate Anesthesia and Capture Room, Primate Surgery Rooms 1 and 2, Preparation Room, five Quarantine Rooms, and Autopsy Room), ten breeding buildings, and one outdoor enclosure (“Castle Building”). The center operates as a welfare-oriented primate breeding facility.

The PRC provides a wide range of services essential for preclinical research using public primate resources, including monkey resource distribution, experimental support, distribution of primate-derived materials, drug toxicity and pharmacokinetic evaluation in monkeys, blood testing and supply, and virus monitoring services.

Professionally trained researchers manage Drosophila research resources through regular serial passage and provide Drosophila embryo microinjection services.

The Korea Drosophila Resource Center (KDRC) is the only Drosophila model organism hub bank in Korea, founded at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) in December 2017, and began full-scale services.
The KDRC receives Drosophila research resources (transgenic and mutant flies) developed by domestic researchers, manages them stably, and distributes them both domestically and internationally.
The center is equipped with 18°C, 23°C, and 25°C temperature- and humidity-controlled rooms for managing Drosophila resources. Due to the impossibility of cryopreservation, professionally trained researchers manage the resources through regular serial passage and provide embryo microinjection services for generating new transgenic flies.
The KDRC holds 11,189 Drosophila research lines available for distribution, has distributed 7,042 domestic lines and 1,428 overseas lines, and provided 842 transgenic embryo microinjection services (cumulative until 2023).
Recently, 5,464 lines from the FlyLight library, produced by HHMI Janelia Campus for Drosophila brain connectome data, were deposited at the KDRC, expanding the unique research resources that only KDRC can distribute worldwide.

The Drosophila embryo microinjection service allows applicants to provide transgenic gene plasmids, which the KDRC uses to perform microinjection and produce transgenic fly resources.
The total support service is researcher-tailored, with the KDRC fully responsible for all processes of transgenic fly generation after individual consultation.
The K-GUT project is a domestic research collaboration providing a Gal4 transgenic gut cell image database (3,468 images from 1,291 transgenic fly lines) via the KDRC website.
The image database is updated regularly. Since the service began in December 2020, an average of 115 researchers per day have visited the KDRC website, performing an average of 858 searches per day.
In particular, since August 2023, when the KDRC began providing and distributing HHMI Janelia FlyLight transgenic flies with gut expression images, the average daily visitors exceeded 200, reaching 656 visitors per day and 1,418 searches per day in November–December 2023.

The KDRC aims to expand research infrastructure using Drosophila model organisms, functioning as a domestic hub for fly research and serving as a global resource bank.

Enhances research convenience for domestic researchers and strengthens national competitiveness in related research fields through user-oriented acquisition and distribution of customized zebrafish resources and maximization of support for material development and utilization

As a vertebrate, zebrafish share similar basic organs and tissue structures with humans, and their genetic and functional regulatory genes and biological signals are highly similar, making them widely used worldwide as a model organism in vertebrate development and human disease research.

Using the zebrafish model, many domestic researchers actively conduct studies in areas such as drug development, developmental biology, immunology, infection, and gene regulation, with laboratories maintaining a variety of plasmids, antibodies, and mutant lines necessary for zebrafish research.
The KZRC was established to facilitate resource sharing and maximize support for domestic researchers, enhancing research convenience and strengthening national competitiveness in related fields.

We are establishing a national mini-pig resource infrastructure that can be utilized across government ministries to address scientific, industrial, economic, and national societal issues, as well as future needs.

Since its completion in 2012 on a 2,891㎡ site at the Ochang branch of KRIBB, the Future Animal Resource Center has been securing and standardizing research mini-pig resources and materials, establishing core technologies, and supporting preclinical R&D infrastructure. In 2016, it began full operation as the Future Animal Resource Center with the goal of establishing a demand-driven, leading support system across academia, industry, research institutes, government, and military, while building an international-level mini-pig resource infrastructure to address scientific, industrial, economic, and societal challenges and future needs.

The Center is equipped with SPF mini-pig housing facilities and surgical rooms (for treatment, procedures, necropsy, etc.) and maintains approximately 150 SPF mini-pigs through an in-house indoor breeding system. It develops and banks research materials (cells, tissues, nucleic acids, blood, etc.) and continuously enhances the value of resources by establishing and supporting the development, evaluation, and utilization systems for mini-pig models, which are key resources for biomedical R&D, using transgenic, cloning, and induced technologies.

To support demand-driven utilization of mini-pig resources, the Center provides a range of preclinical services including development of various animal models, research for therapeutics, legal/medical products, and technology R&D, as well as resource distribution, blood supply, preclinical research support, confocal microscopy, high-speed cell sorting, advanced imaging with 3T MRI, angiography, and PET-CT scanning.

As a central bank responsible for securing, producing, and distributing Xenopus research materials with a user-centered approach, it aims to advance Xenopus-based research in Korea.

The Xenopus Resource Center was established and has been operating as a model animal resource bank newly incorporated in September 2021 as the 7th sub-project of the Model Animal Cluster Project, building on the Xenopus Resource Bank conducted by the National Research Foundation of Korea since 2016.
The center operates using two rooms at Hallym University Translational Medical Research Center, one animal housing room at the Experimental Animal Center, and laboratory facilities within the Department of Biochemistry in the medical building. It contributes to the advancement of Xenopus research infrastructure within national life science resources (materials + data) to promote bio-research and industrial innovation.

Xenopus, also known as the African clawed frog, is a key model organism for developmental biology and has contributed to two Nobel Prizes over more than 100 years of research.
Xenopus is widely applied in basic and applied life science research and has recently become a valuable model for disease studies due to the availability of knock-out techniques, making it useful in toxicology, drug screening, and stem cell research.
The Xenopus Resource Center develops, collects, manages, and maintains Xenopus and related research materials, providing them to researchers as needed.

Using a systematic nanobody discovery platform, we provide customized antigen-specific antibody screening services for users.

The Animal Functional Molecules Bank (AFMB) offers a service to discover nanobodies—renowned for their excellent physicochemical properties and widely used in therapeutic, diagnostic, and basic science research—tailored to user needs.
We also provide distribution services for bioactive materials affecting animal growth, bioactive resources related to animal function, secreted animal bioactive substances, and bioactive materials needed for biomedical industry research and preclinical studies.

Nanobodies are single-domain antibodies found in camelid IgG2 and IgG3, characterized by their small size and long CDR sequences that allow specific binding even to antigens that conventional antibodies struggle to recognize.
Moreover, due to high sequence similarity to human IgG antibodies, nanobodies exhibit low or no immunogenicity and excellent thermal and chemical stability, making them useful platforms for therapeutic development for various diseases.
Cablivi, the first FDA-approved therapy for acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura in 2019, is a medicine developed using such nanobodies.
At this center, we create and distribute user-tailored nanobody antibodies based on known sequences, and for unknown antigens, we discover antibodies by immunizing alpacas with the target antigen.
To boost domestic demand for nanobody antibodies, we conduct workshops and technical training programs, and provide services including antibody characterization and efficacy evaluation.

As of 2022, the nanobody-based AFMB is the only center in the Republic of Korea providing customized antigen-specific nanobody screening services, contributing to enhancing national competitiveness in biopharmaceutical research.

We aim to contribute to the development of C. elegans as a national strategic bioresource through the collaborative growth of academia, industry, government, and hospitals.

CeNBank was established in September 2021 to enhance the utility of the C. elegans model organism and to strengthen its role as a national strategic bioresource through the collaborative growth of academia, industry, government, and hospitals.
CeNBank provides researchers with access to wild-type and transgenic C. elegans strains, as well as basic technology and science (BTS) research services, thereby strengthening academic research capabilities and offering consulting for industrial applications.

The center secures, distributes, and stores strains in line with domestic researcher demand and international research trends, while providing new strain development support, early-stage laboratory assistance, and training programs through collaborations with leading overseas research institutions.
Located in Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do, the center operates C. elegans culture rooms, morphology laboratories, molecular biology labs, and storage facilities. Its proximity to universities, hospitals, and the Osong Life Science Complex facilitates researcher exchange and technology transfer to domestic bio-startups.

Moving forward, CeNBank aims to establish standardized processes for C. elegans resources to achieve international certification, promote their use as an alternative model organism, enhance translational research capabilities to strengthen bio-infrastructure, and develop specialized content leading in policy, regulation, and education.

The center manages mouse pathogen standard research resources that can be used for mouse health monitoring.

The Mouse Pathogen Standard Cooperation Center (MPSC) was established in September 2021 with support from the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). It securely manages essential microbial standard resources for mouse health monitoring and distributes them domestically and internationally.
Mouse health monitoring is essential in all animal research facilities to ensure the accuracy and reproducibility of experimental results and to prevent infectious diseases.

The MPSC conducts infection experiments using mouse microbial resources to obtain research materials such as infected tissues, blood, and feces, which are then distributed as standard resources. Based on the accumulated technical and genetic information from these resources, the MPSC provides customized mouse health monitoring information to meet user needs.

We aim to enhance research competitiveness in zebrafish studies by providing services for the import, production, and distribution of fluorescent reporter zebrafish resources.

Fluorescent reporter zebrafish specifically express various fluorescent proteins in targeted tissues and cells, allowing in vivo observation of desired cells and tissues through fluorescent imaging. This enables easy monitoring of tissue damage and recovery caused by diseases or toxic substances in vivo.
They are actively used in human disease research, drug discovery studies, and various toxicity evaluation studies.


Due to these advantages, various fluorescent reporter zebrafish resources are produced worldwide for research. However, developing high-quality fluorescent reporter zebrafish requires advanced genetic engineering techniques and significant time and effort.
Therefore, the active exchange and sharing of fluorescent reporter zebrafish resources worldwide significantly contribute to the promotion of zebrafish-based research.

The Fluorescent Reporter Zebrafish Collaboration Center contributes by: ① importing and distributing fluorescent reporter lines from overseas resource banks, ② distributing fluorescent reporter lines held by the collaboration center, ③ producing and distributing new fluorescent reporter lines tailored to user needs, and ④ developing and sharing various in vivo imaging technologies.
Through these efforts, we aim to promote diverse research using zebrafish animal models and enhance domestic research competitiveness.

The Center secures and generates Gal4 transgenic Drosophila lines for various genes whose expression is regulated in the gut. It analyzes their intestinal expression patterns and builds a database to provide these resources to researchers both domestically and internationally.

Established in 2019, the Drosophila Gut Model Collaboration Center provides a research resource platform that allows Drosophila to be used as a model for studying gut function and disease, offering genetic information and research materials to distinguish gut compartments and cell types.
The gut is divided into multiple compartments with distinct functions, each composed of various cell types. Cells within each compartment can be distinguished by the expression of specific genes, and studying genes expressed in compartment-specific patterns provides deeper understanding of gut function and related diseases.
Moreover, it provides new insights into the interactions between the gut and other organs (gut-brain axis, gut-liver axis) as well as interactions with gut microbiota.

Accordingly, the Center secures and generates various Gal4 transgenic fly lines that allow gene expression to be controlled at the compartmental level of gut cells, in collaboration with the Drosophila central bank. High-resolution image data of intestinal expression patterns are compiled into a database and provided to researchers worldwide via the K-Gut Project on the KDRC website.

Additionally, the Center provides expression pattern data for Split-Gal4 transgenic flies, which allow more detailed observation of regional and cell-specific patterns within gut tissue. This enables researchers to explore genes revealing the diverse properties of cells within compartments and create resources to manipulate these cells.