Gene editing is seen as a core technology that could transform everything from the treatment of intractable genetic disorders to farming that can withstand climate change. But when rules and institutions fail to keep pace with the science, research results struggle to reach industry and patients. There is also an urgent need for a legal foundation that protects patents on foundational technology.
Kim Jin-soo, a distinguished professor at KAIST and a pioneer of gene editing in Korea, said in an interview at his office in Seoul's Gasan Digital Complex on the 13th that "we are ahead in gene-editing technology, but because of regulation we cannot commercialize it, or we end up mired in patent disputes with global companies." He added that the country "must build the institutional foundation for new technology to flourish and move aggressively to protect the foundational patents that come out of research and development."
Kim founded the gene-editing company ToolGen in 1999 and has studied gene-editing technologies from zinc fingers to TALEN and CRISPR. He moved to Seoul National University as a professor in 2005 and later served as a research center director at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS). Since 2025 he has been a distinguished professor at KAIST's Graduate School of Engineering Biology, continuing research on gene editing using artificial intelligence and on editing mitochondrial and chloroplast genes.
Kim said gene editing can be used to create crops that withstand drought, but that in Korea such crops face rules similar to those applied to genetically modified organisms. Crops that have had only their existing genes edited, without foreign genes inserted, can be difficult to distinguish from naturally occurring mutations, he said, making it unreasonable to treat them the same as GMOs. Amendments to the law governing living modified organisms are under discussion to overhaul the rules, he said, but progress has been slow in the relevant ministries and the National Assembly. "Britain treats this as precision breeding, and we need to face the reality that the technology is being commercialized in the United States and elsewhere," he said. "Regulation to ensure the safety of new technology is necessary, but it must not block technological progress."
In 2022 he founded two companies, GreenGene and EdgeGene, separately from ToolGen. GreenGene is developing technology to edit the chloroplast DNA that handles photosynthesis in plants, raising photosynthetic efficiency and agricultural productivity while increasing carbon absorption. EdgeGene aims to develop treatments for genetic disorders by editing mitochondrial DNA. The technologies at both companies were developed during Kim's research at IBS; he set up separate companies, paid licensing fees and secured exclusive patent rights. "The path to commercializing this technology, too, could change depending on how GMO rules are applied," he said.
Commercializing gene-editing therapies is also difficult in Korea. In the United States, Britain and elsewhere, Casgevy, a CRISPR-based treatment for a rare blood disorder, won the first such approval in 2023. It was developed by Vertex of the United States and Switzerland's CRISPR Therapeutics. "More than 250 clinical trials using gene editing have been conducted in the United States, Europe and China," Kim said. "We need to overhaul our clinical trial and approval systems to match reality."
ToolGen is in patent disputes with the Broad Institute and Vertex of the United States over foundational CRISPR technology. In the dispute with Vertex, the issues include the RNP method of delivering CRISPR-Cas9 into cells. Kim believes the patented technology was also used to manufacture Casgevy. Rather than deny using the technology, Vertex is challenging the validity of ToolGen's patents, he said. In the dispute with the Broad Institute, he said ToolGen holds research records that can prove in court that it was the first to invent. On a decision in Europe to revoke some claims in ToolGen's EP457 patent, he said that "the revocation of some claims does not mean the loss of all patent rights," adding that the rights could be maintained through an appeal.
"These are fights we absolutely cannot lose," Kim said. "Defending the rights to foundational technology is how we prevent national wealth from flowing out." He added that "patent disputes require enormous capital. Overseas, there is an active market for investing in litigation, but in Korea there is almost no such investment, so policy support is needed."
Kim said he became convinced that gene editing would change the world while studying proteins as a graduate student in the United States. After watching Sangamo, a company in the field, be founded in the United States in 1997, he left the life sciences research institute under Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, where he was then working, and founded ToolGen in 1999.
Pursuing research and entrepreneurship at the same time, however, brought legal disputes. Looking back on the lawsuits over invention rights and research funding during his time at Seoul National University and IBS, he said that while focused on research he had not attended sufficiently to administrative procedures. But because there was a joint research agreement between ToolGen and Seoul National University covering the foundational CRISPR patent, he said, the Supreme Court confirmed his acquittal. "If I had filed the invention report first, as the procedure required, the review period would have delayed the filing date and I might have lost the rights," he said. "I thought R&D could change the world, but after founding a company I felt how high the walls of reality are." To researchers considering starting a company, he said: "If the main goal is to make money, I would discourage it, because exits are not easy." But "if the goal is to create jobs and change the world, I will cheer them on."