Professor Kim Youngmok's Team at National Pukyong University Publishes Paper in Top Environmental Engineering and Safety Journal

Journal of Hazardous Materials... Research on Biosurfactants

The research on controlling methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) using a ‘biosurfactant’ by Professor Kim Youngmok’s research team (majoring in Food Engineering) at Pukyong National University was published in a top-tier SCI journal in the field of environmental engineering and safety, with a 2023 impact factor of 12.2 and a JCR ranking in the top 3.2%.

Jung Geumjae, a doctoral student in the Department of Food Engineering at Pukyong National University (first author), Professor Kim Youngmok of the Department of Food Science (corresponding author), and Professor Fazlur Rahman Khan of the International Cooperation Research Institute for Marine Fisheries Development (corresponding author) published the paper titled “Control of Staphylococcus aureus infection by biosurfactant derived from Bacillus rugosus HH2: Strain isolation, structural characterization, and mechanistic insights” in the December 2024 issue.

In this paper, the research team purified a ‘biosurfactant’ from Bacillus (rod-shaped bacteria) species and presented research results elucidating the control of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus using this biosurfactant and its mechanism.

The results showed that the Bacillus-derived ‘biosurfactant’ downregulated the expression of genes related to quorum sensing and cell adhesion, and molecular docking simulations demonstrated strong interactions with key antibiotic resistance-related proteins, indicating potential to overcome antibiotic resistance.

By discovering a new natural antimicrobial agent capable of controlling the major antibiotic-resistant pathogen methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, the research team expects that Bacillus-derived ‘biosurfactants’ can be utilized in developing new paradigm therapeutics different from existing antibiotics.

This research was supported by the Marine and Fisheries Science and Technology Promotion Agency’s project for the commercialization technology development of microalgae-based alternative seaweed meat (Principal Investigator: Professor Kim Youngmok) and the National Research Foundation of Korea’s Basic Science Research Program in Science and Technology through the University-Focused Research Institute (Marine Bionics Convergence Technology Center, Director: Professor Jung Wonkyo).