1994年，在韩国科学技术院（KAIST）生物分子化学工程系（现更名为化学与生物分子工程系）成立了应用生物技术研究所。于1999年12月更名为代谢和生物分子工程研究所。其研究领域包括代谢工程，基因组学，蛋白质组学，代谢组学，生物信息学，初级和次级代谢物的生产，蛋白质和其他生物聚合物的生产和工程，以及用于诊断的DNA芯片技术。政府和公司支持的一些项目已经完成，许多其他项目目前正在进行中。
研究所正在开发的用于生产各种初级代谢物，重组蛋白和生物聚合物的上游到下游工艺方面取得了重大进展。研究所将集中在代谢和生物分子工程研究上，还被韩国文部科学省指定为代谢工程国家研究实验室，这反映在研究所的名称中。
研究所的李相宇教授曾获得过许多奖项和荣誉，包括韩国总统颁发的第一届青年科学家奖，科学和技术部颁发的本月科学家奖，KIPO颁发的最佳专利奖（世宗大王奖），美国ISI的引文经典奖，以及生物技术和生物工程（约翰·威利父子）颁发的第一届埃尔默·加登奖（1999年最佳论文奖，美国）。2001年，李教授获得韩国总统颁发的国家功勋勋章，以表彰他对科学技术进步的贡献。
In 1994, the Institute of Applied Biotechnology was established in the Department of Biomolecular Chemical Engineering (now renamed the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). It was renamed Institute of Metabolic and Biomolecular Engineering in December 1999. Its research areas include metabolic engineering, genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics, production of primary and secondary metabolites, production and engineering of proteins and other biopolymers, and DNA microarray technology for diagnostics. A number of projects supported by the government and companies have been completed and many others are currently underway.
Significant progress has been made in the upstream-to-downstream processes being developed by the Institute for the production of various primary metabolites, recombinant proteins and biopolymers. The institute will focus on metabolic and biomolecular engineering research, and has also been designated as a national research laboratory for metabolic engineering by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of South Korea, which is reflected in the name of the institute.
Professor Lee Sang-woo of the Institute has received many awards and honors, including the First Young Scientist Award from the President of Korea, the Scientist of the Month Award from the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Best Patent Award from KIPO (King Sejong Award), the Citation Classics Award from ISI USA, and the first Elmer Garden Award (Best Paper Award 1999) from Biotechnology and Bioengineering (John Wiley & Sons). In 2001, Professor Lee was awarded the National Merit Medal by the President of the Republic of Korea for his contributions to scientific and technological progress.