About · Organisation
Organisation, leadership and technical advisory board
AriBnC has been run by two co-CEOs since August 2023, and a vice president joined in January 2026. A project is staffed by the clinical group that designs and runs human application and clinical studies, and by the regulatory affairs group that prepares dossiers for the Korean MFDS, the US FDA, Health Canada and the European Union. Where a project calls for it, external technical advisors are engaged for that project.
How the company is run
Two co-CEOs, one vice president and three directors, and four business areas
AriBnC Co., Ltd. was founded on 1 September 2021 and opened for business the same day. The head office has been in Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do continuously since then. Since August 2023 the company has been run by two co-CEOs.
A vice president joined in January 2026. The company works in four areas: (1) research management and CRO work — drug and medical device trials and every kind of study a health functional food calls for; (2) regulatory affairs; (3) functional ingredient R&D; and (4) ABCI, the AI-Bio Convergence Institute established in April 2026. Clinical and nonclinical study design, biostatistics, EDC build and operation, and CRF design are done at the Yongin head office; in-house lab-scale probiotic research is done at the UNIST Research Institute (the UNIST site of our Corporate Affiliated Research Institute), opened in June 2024. In June 2026 the company entered a 30-month agreement under a MOTIR national R&D programme for industrial innovation.
How the company is organised
Management
Run by two co-CEOsContracts · finance · people · external relations
Clinical Trial Management
Runs every stage of a trialThree teams
Clinical Operations
Study planning · protocol designMonitoring · study reportsData Management
EDC build · operationCRF design · data validationBiostatistics
Sample size · statistical analysis planAnalysis · statistical report
Regulatory Affairs
Every stage of approvals, in Korea and abroadThree teams
Korea Regulatory
MFDS individual recognition of health functional food ingredientsDrug · medical device approvalsInternational Regulatory
US FDA · Health Canada · EUGRAS · NDI · NPN · novel foodsRegulatory Strategy
Market-entry pathways by countrySafety data · labelling · advertising review
Research Institutes
Four research units, each with its own purpose
Corporate Affiliated Research Institute
Recognition No. 2021116297Recognised Dec 2021R&D Institute
Foods · medical devices · drugsIn-house developmentUNIST Research Institute
Probiotic strain researchSince Jun 2024AI-Bio Convergence Institute (ABCI)
AI models for health dataSince Apr 2026
Dashed: advisory bodies (outside the regular departments)
Executive team
Yunsuk Chun, PhD
Jongkyu Kim, PhD
Seung Ho Jung, PhD
Heads the Research Institutes division and leads the AI-Bio Convergence Institute (ABCI), covering bio R&D and AI development.
AI-Bio Convergence Institute (ABCI)DirectorByung Kwon Kim, PhD
Director in charge of clinical trial management (CTM).
Clinical trial management (CTM)DirectorNamkyu Yoon, PhD
Director in charge of regulatory affairs (RA) in Korea and abroad.
Regulatory affairs (RA)DirectorHyung Yeon Park, PhD
Director in charge of the UNIST Research Institute.
UNIST Research Institute
Technical advisory board
External experts engaged project by project. The production and industry panel is made up of chief executives of Korean companies; the other panels are university professors and doctorate-level researchers in the relevant fields.
Regulatory science — dossier and deficiency advice
Experts with experience in the review of individually recognised ingredients advise on how a dossier is structured and how a deficiency response should be framed.
Regulatory scope of workClinicalClinical trial physician advice
Advice on inclusion and exclusion criteria, choice of endpoints, and whether a site can realistically run the study. Drug trials (Phase 2 and 3) and exploratory or confirmatory device trials are reviewed separately, because the evidence required and the way a site runs them differ.
Drug trialsUniversity researchUniversity research advice
Advice on mechanism-of-action study design, analytical methods and marker compound selection, and the direction of strain research. The probiotic work at the UNIST Research Institute — naturally adapted and selected strains, whole-genome sequencing, strain deposit — is the typical form this collaboration takes.
Functional ingredientsMedical, pharmaceutical and food advisory panel
Advice on study design and the reading of results in medicine, pharmacy and food, and on how the safety and functionality of an ingredient should be assessed.
Production and industry advisory panel
Advice on ingredient production and quality control, and on what to weigh when research results are carried over into a product and a production line.
Frequently asked questions
Do the co-CEOs or the vice president take part at the proposal stage?
It depends on the scope and the schedule. The proposal names the people assigned by position and role, states whether the clinical group or the regulatory affairs group leads, and states how many advisory sessions are planned.
How does the advisory board take part in a project?
Advisors are engaged meeting by meeting, with the scope and number of sessions written into the contract. Their input serves as reference material for project decisions.
Who handles the AI-related research?
ABCI, the AI-Bio Convergence Institute established in April 2026, leads this work, headed by Seung Ho Jung, PhD, who worked as a scientist overseas before joining the company. Several patent applications have been filed for technologies that provide wellness information — among them gut microbiome profile prediction with personalised probiotics (application KR 10-2025-0108178, filed August 2025) and non-invasive lifelog-based indicator prediction with health-behaviour recommendation (application KR 10-2026-0099786, filed June 2026).
Tell us where your project stands — ingredient screening, preparing a human application study, or close to submission — and which markets you are aiming at (MFDS in Korea, the US FDA, the NNHPD in Canada, the EU). We will come back with a proposed team, the advisory scope, and whether a full-service or functional service provider (FSP) engagement fits.